NTT Journal for Theology and the Study of Religion - Volume 60, Issue 4, 2006

The editorial board has recently conducted a survey among the readers of NTT. We asked readers both about their background and about their opinion on the journal. The majority prefers articles that deal with current topics, surveys of recent developments in the field, and thematic issues.

NTT exists 60 years, which is a good occasion to ponder on the future of this journal. The strength of NTT in the past, will also be its future: being a vehicle of scholarly theology construed as the academic reflection on human utterances of all sorts about God or the divine. There needs to be room for a variety of materials and methods and especially for articles that summarize trends and perspectives in the various fields of theology. New findings of all periods and places need to be presented to the interested reader. As for actuality, the journal will concentrate on tendencies in belief, theology, and religion. Junior scholars will be encouraged to publish their firstlings in the journal.

The Big Bang theory is, in contrast to evolutionary theory, relatively uncontroversial among Christian believers. But does this imply that the Big Bang is consonant with the Christian doctrine of creation? This article presents some reflections on the relation between the doctrine of creation, the image of God, and scientific theories, such as the Big Bang theory. It is argued that scientific theories are ‘theologically ambiguous’, which results from a difference in approach between the natural sciences and religion. This theological ambiguity should make theologians cautious about identifying scientific theories and theological doctrines.

In this article three new publications (translations, commentaries) on the Onomasticon by Eusebius of Caesarea are discussed and evaluated. Attention is also paid to the causes of the upsurge of interest in this hitherto rather neglected early Christian document.

This article aims to reassess the relevance of Augustine’s theology for contemporary theological discussion. The author argues for an ‘Augustinian paradigm’ that provides a helpful alternative to popular ways of doing theology. First, the theological paradigms of contemporary trinitarian and negative theology are introduced in terms of the role that Augustine plays in these theologies, a negative and a positive role, respectively. Second, building upon Augustine’s theology mainly as found in De Trinitate, the Augustinian alternative is presented and defended over its rivals. It is argued that in Augustine’s theology, God’s unique identity guarantees the fundamental difference between Creator and creature, while at the same time as Creator, God provides creatures with a trinitarian identity that makes them dependent on God and fellow creatures.

Inspired by the contemporary interest in the ‘rewritten Bible’ phenomenon, this article offers a detailed comparative study of the account of Israel’s first judge (‘Othniel’) in Judges 3:7-11 and its Josephan version in Ant. 5.179-184, where the figure is called ‘Keniaz’. Josephus, the study finds, significantly amplifies the Bible’s presentation, likewise redirecting attention from the theological to the political sphere when describing the nature of Israel’s offense that sets events in motion. Josephus’ version further evidences a number of similarities and differences with Pseudo-Philo’s rewriting of the biblical Othniel story in his Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum 25-28. At the same time, Pseudo-Philo has much more to tell about the personage than either the Bible or Josephus.