For those who don't mind being stretched and are securely anchored, this would be a good one to test your moorings.
http://www.amazon.com/elusive-presence-Biblical-Religious-perspectives/dp/0060682329/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1302920822&sr=8-1
Milk, why don't you write a review of this title on the amazon page your link sends us to so that we can have some idea what the book is about? [I][:)]
Will do, however, breakfast and walking the dog comes first. brb.
Milk, why don't you write a review of this title on the amazon page your link sends us to so that we can have some idea what the book is about?
You can 'see inside' by going to this Amazon site instead:
http://www.amazon.com/Elusive-Presence-Toward-Biblical-Theology/dp/1579103359/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_4
Thanks Richard, that was the same Amazon page I referred with the "look inside" ability. For some reason my link did not have that??? Anyway saves me from writing a review.
Anyway saves me from writing a review.
No, it doesn't! The TOC looks very interesting, but it's not the same thing as a review. I want the review as well! [:)]
I found this at
http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/apr1980/v37-1-bookreview2.htm
The appearance of Samuel Terrien's The Elusive Presence is notable on several grounds. It represents the crowning achievement in the life work of one of America's finest biblical scholars. Even more important, however, is the fact that Terrien belonged to that generation of scholars and teachers that raised the banner for biblical theology but was not himself a major spokesman of that movement (Childs gives him only a single footnote in his Biblical Theology in Crisis). He now presents us with the first major attempt at a biblical theology since the death knell of biblical theology was sounded a decade ago, and indeed this is the first volume of its kind since the works of Paul Minear and Bernhard W. Anderson some thirty years ago. The structure of the book enables it to function as both an Old Testament theology and as biblical theology. The weight on the Old Testament side is to be expected in light of the author's expertise, but the treatment of the New Testament is not simply a nod to his Christian perspective. It is an integral part of the work, anticipated early in his first chapter. The book, therefore, deserves to be assessed in its dual character or function.
As the title indicates, Terrien clearly believes that a particular theme provides the integrating center for the theology of the Old Testament
and Scripture as a whole. It is "the elusive presence," Deus absconditus atque praesens. In an assessment of various currents in the theological interpretation of the Bible, he both criticizes the notion that covenant provides the foundation of Old Testament theology and puts forth a preliminary case for the presence of God as the central concept and reality to which Scripture points. The rest of the book then provides a diachronic elaboration of that theme beginning with the patriarchal narratives, specifically the theophanic traditions where presence and promise come together, i.e., Gen. 12, 15, 22, 28, and 32. The Sinai theophany texts obviously play a central role in the Old Testament from any perspective, but certainly that is the case when the touchstone of interpretation is the presence of God. Terrien examines these texts at length, distinguishing them from the patriarchal stories of epiphanic visitation and the prophetic confessions of psychic experience by the emphasis upon natural wonders and the theologoumenon of the name. With the latter he begins to develop a dialectic or tension that he sees running throughout the Old Testament and indeed into the New.
It is the tension between a theology of the glory as a way of perceiving and experiencing the divine presence (a theologoumenon that was rooted in the traditions of the south, Hebron and Jerusalem, and extended from the Yahwist to the exilic priestly circles and the Second Temple), and a theology of the name which was situated in the north and led to the theology of the classical prophets. This dialectic is explicitly reflected in the association of the elusive presence of God with the principal religious shrines of the Old Testament, ark, tent, and temple, where Terrien sees some signs of displacement of a theology of the name by a theology of the glory, a tendency which Terrien regards as carrying with it "ominous consequences in the realm of political ethics" (p. 171). Here in the chapter on the prophetic vision, Jeremiah and Ezekiel naturally play a major role.
In some respects the high point of the book is the treatment of the Psalms. That is in part because the Psalms revolve naturally around the central pole of Terrien's theology and in part because he sees the tension within the dialectic described above being maintained in the Psalms. "They produce fields of force which maintain on the one hand the tension and the ease of an equilibrium between emotional contemplation within the confines of cultic space and ethical passion for the world, outside on the other…. They sang the name while expecting the glory" (pp. 278-79). Terrien wisely chooses not to develop his point by random quoting of many Psalms but by a more extended interpretation of a select number, including several royal Psalms as well as Psalms 27, 84, 73, 22, 51, 139, and 23.
The wisdom literature of the Old Testament does not lend itself as easily to a theological perspective in terms of the divine presence, with two significant exceptions which properly provide the principal base of Terrien's discussion: the figure of personified Wisdom and the Book of Job.
A brief excursion through the hierocratic and apocalyptic traditions of the late Old Testament material leads into two concluding chapters on the New Testament that see in the incarnation "a radically new mode of divine nearness" (p. 405) and the point at which "the ethical demands of the theology of the name were henceforth held in tension with the spiritual delights of the theology of the glory" (p. 449). In Terrien's judgment, the major connection between Old Testament and New Testament is provided by the way in which personified Wisdom brings together name and glory and is also the "main source of Christology" (p. 473), at least according to some contemporary re-search.
The Elusive Presence is a significant achievement. To a large degree Terrien has accomplished what he was aiming at, a biblical theology that organizes biblical materials in a way which uncovers very basic dimensions of their theology and across a broad range of materials including both Testaments. The central theme of the elusive presence is genuinely at the very heart of the Bible and belongs to its essential proclamation. While one can hardly overplay it as a foundation stone of the Old Testament, it offers more possibilities as a bridge to the gospel of the New Testament than most other proposals. Indeed, one or two New Testament colleagues have suggested that the New Testament part of Terrien's book could have been elaborated to a much greater degree while still consistent with Terrien's overall direction.
One does not diminish Terrien's accomplishment or the usefulness of the book by observing that his thematic organization provides one but not the only set of spectacles for observing the reality of the biblical word, or that some significant aspects of the biblical materials are only touched on at best. In his long treatment of the Sinai chapters, Terrien devotes only about half a page to the Decalogue, a reflection in general of the prophetic vision, as the title indicates, but the focus is almost entirely on Jeremiah and Ezekiel, who lend themselves to an analysis in terms of the name-glory tension, while other prophets are included in relation to vision reports and call stories. Needless to say, much of the prophetic tradition is thereby neglected.
Furthermore, his criticism of the focus on covenant in other attempts at biblical theology carries less weight when one realizes that the covenant spectacles will uncover the legal-ethical dimension more sharply than the presence theme. I agree with Terrien that the presence of God is as prominent as any theme sounded in Scripture. One may not find another single rubric that unifies the diverse literary units of the Bible unless it is so broad as to have little interpretative force. But that simply means that no single organizing rubric can ever fully account for the richness of the biblical word.
The task of biblical theology is to explore and elaborate both the unity and the diversity of that word from various angles, recognizing that any single exploration will by definition remain incomplete but not off the track. The Elusive Presence, with its many exegetical insights
and its lucid and elegant literary style, is definitely on the track and a worthy contribution to the renewal of biblical theology.
Patrick D. Miller, Jr. Union Theological Seminary Richmond, Virginia
I found this at http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/apr1980/v37-1-bookreview2.htm
Thanks. Now you're off the hook. [;)]
whew, thought I had to go back to seminary and pull out my Turrabian. (sp.) It's a good book, some parts are hard to absorb, just because it's an in depth book, but I recommend to any one thinking about God's presence.
