Paul Matthews Van Buren

Paul van Buren argues convincingly that the gospel Paul received is a gospel "according to the scriptures"-good news that the earliest Christian community found in the scriptures of the Jewish tradition to which all its members belonged. Specifically, van Buren proposes alternative readings of a common story, the "binding" of Isaac in Genesis 22, that coincide with the formation of two texts-the Tanak of Judaism and the Old Testament of Christianity. The emphasis on aqedah is interesting in itself, because that story-among the most important and troubling contained in Hebrew scripture-has played a formative role in all three of the "Western" monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Van Buren's point is that how it is read (and by whom) largely determines whether that scripture becomes Tanak, Old Testament, or the text of Biblical scholars: the scripture is inseparable from its reading and the community that reads it. In the end, van Buren concludes that "the church has no other news than the gospel 'according to the scriptures,'" and he reiterates that his purpose in writing this book was to trace the discovery of that gospel and the consequences of the discovery. Tracing the discovery is significant, because it locates Christianity in the reading of a text-not the "New" Testament, but the "Old." Discovering the Christian gospel in Hebrew scripture transforms that scripture into "Old" Testament, but that does not invalidate other readings. This claim grounds van Buren's argument (which may surprise some readers) for retaining the term "Old Testament" rather than shifting (as many scholars have done) to terms such as "Hebrew Scripture" or "First Testament." There is value, he says, in recognizing that a different reading by a different community makes a different book. In Van Buren's reading, this is important for relations between Christians and Jews because it opens the possibility of dual (or multiple?) readings that are not mutually exclusive. It is an important contribution to rethinking Christianity, because it restores "Old Testament" to the normative status it enjoyed in the community that "discovered" the gospel "according to scripture" in a creative reading of old stories precipitated by confrontation with new problems. Reading old stories in confrontation with new problems-and reading new problems in confrontation with old stories-is an art with an ancient pedigree in the tradition out of which both Christianity and rabbinic Judaism grow. Reclaiming that tradition, van Buren argues, could certainly enrich Christianity; and it could enable constructive dialogue in a plural world where God's love is not limited to a single people.… (mer)