THE RELIGION OF ISRAEL CHAPTER I AIM AND METHOD OUR purpose is to trace the history of Israel's religion from the earliest discoverable stages down to the Christian era. The subject has been frequently treated in recent years under the name of "Biblical Theology of the Old Testament." The adjective "Biblical" in this title is intended to differentiate this science from dogmatic or systematic theology. Dogmatic theology, which aims to present the philosophy held in any particular religious communion, uses the contents of the Bible to confirm or establish the doctrines of the Church as defined in the creeds. Its purpose may be said to be the discovery of the meaning of the Bible for us and in our philosophical system. With the rise of modern historical science men began to realise that what the biblical writers thought of God and divine things might not always be normative for us. The student of history does not understand a thing unless he can trace the process of growth by which it has come to be what it is. From this point of view it is no longer enough for us to set forth the religious ideas of the Bible in some philosophical arrangement. The principle of arrangement must be organic, according to the stages of growth discoverable in the documents upon which our knowledge depends. Biblical theology, therefore, is correctly defined as the science which sets forth "the theology of the Bible in its historical formation." The same thing is meant by Oehler 1 Briggs, General Introduction to the Study of Holy Scripture, p. 569. Dr. Briggs adds the phrase "within the canonical books." Whether this conception of the canon belongs here we may be able to determine later. |
