Canonical Approaches to the Bible (EABS)

Call For Papers: Relationship(s) of the two parts of the Christian bible.

For a long time, the discussion how the two parts of the Christian bible are related to each other was reserved to Systematic Theology. Just as the discourse was dominated by terms from dogmatic theology, in the exegetical debate ideological issues tended to be at stake [or: in the focus of attention?], e.g. reflections on covenant(s) or Jewish-Christian relations.

The 2012 session of the EABS group “Canonical Approach to the Bible” wants to delineate the complexity and varieties of concepts how the writings that were later on canonized as the “New Testament” relate to “Scripture” (the Hebrew Bible) from a particularly exegetical point of view. Insights from the textual evidence (such as text-criticism or examination of different manuscripts) are as welcome as socio-historical examinations or contributions from the perspective of social/cultural memory theory. It is of particular interest how communities who regarded Jesus as Israel’s messiah dealt with the Hebrew Scriptures and constructed their Jewish identity/identities on its base. Exemplary investigations of how New Testament texts are dealing with Scripture are welcome.

Regarding the enormous impact of the canonization of the two-part Christian bible, questions of Wirkungsgeschichte come into play as well. How do different Christian communities today deal with the texts of each part of the Christian canon? The contemporary perspective ought not to be neglected: Informed by the variety of concepts how the Hebrew Scriptures were read in the first four centuries and the Wirkungsgeschichte of the Christian canon we would also like to take a look at the problem in which way(s) the relation of both parts of the canon can be expressed in a theologically and exegetically valid manner today.

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