Part II

The Event Narrative

Isaiah 7:1- 25

 

            In our prior presentation we looked at the poetic elements of the Isaiah scroll that allowed us to identify a major literary unit, Chapter 3-13, “proto-Isaiah,” as it might be dubbed, which served as the original impulse for the Isaiah text as we know it.   We will now direct our attention to the center of this unit around which its content has been arranged.  At the center of this text is a prose unit which undertakes the historical narration of an event that took place in the year 736 B. C. E., shortly after Ahaz ascended the throne Judah. Another historical narrative in First Isaiah does not occur until Chapter 20, briefly, and them more extensively at the conclusion First Isaiah, Chapter 36-39.  This extended narrative is shared with the Historian of Deuteronomic School, II Kings 16-20. When we arrive there, we will encounter the question of who is dependent upon whom.  We will leave that discussion for later, except to register here the opinion that Isaiah 7 is the work of the Prophetic School of Jerusalem. Unlike that later historical narrative by the Deuteronomy School, where prior source is named, “The Annual of the Kings of Judah,” the Isaiah Historian of chapter 7 is not dependent on sources but is working with a firsthand relationship with the event.

            The account in Chapter 7 begins with a phrase, “It came to pass in the days of Ahaz, ןיהי בימי אחז” which is at home in prophesy as opposed to history, whose practice is to date events with reference to years of a reign.  When Ahaz ascended the throne of Judah, the northern kingdom was led by King Pekah who had set aside the long-standing enmity with Syria. He joined in an alliance against Assyria which was led by king Rezin.  The league between Samaria and Damascus was dictated by real politique as the ascending Empire of Assyria, the first empire was threat to both. They pressed Ahaz to join them, threating war and conspiring to replace him with a king who would do their bidding. What actually happened is unclear as the Isaiah text say enigmatically “they marched on Jerusalem to wage war against it but could not.”  We might imagine skirmishes and conspiracies with factions within Judah and Jerusalem taking place. The opening years of any regime are shaky so as to make such testing doubly disconcerting.

            We have pointed out in our previous section that Ahaz had followed the long reign of Uzziah, which had continued through his son Jotham first as coregent and then after his father’s death, king but still under the control of his father’s counselors.  Ahaz, on the other hand, was surrounded with youthful councilors anxious for their turn. The elders of the prophetic school would have found themselves without the previous channels through which they could communicate their growing concerns about the changing geopolitical situation.  That made the school turn to a youthful member, Isaiah, as their messenger to the youthful king and to seek out a public occasion upon which he could deliver their message.

            According to the narrative, the king went out to examine the spring of Gihon, the crucial source of Jerusalem’s water. This resonates with the issue of a sufficient supply of water raised in opening of Chapter 3, and anticipates the tunnel dug in the reign of the king’s son, Hezekiah, which connected the Gihon Spring with the reservoir in the lower city, known as the Pool of Siloam.  When Ahaz visited it, its water flowed down a channel, “conduit,” that ran along the wall of the city. The prophetic school used this public outing connected with the security of the city to deliver its message to the king, which, of course, they were convinced was God’s message.

            The message they send begins with the charge to listen השמר and to be calmובשקט . Then the substance the message begins with words of assurance, “Do not fear, and do not let your heart be troubled,”  אל-תירא לבבך אל-ירך. These are words that resonate throughout the Isaiah text and with those who have made this text central to their own mission, not least of which are those whose mission comes the Gospel. These are words that were given to Isaiah to speak as he greeted the young king Ahaz. The message continues with the assertion that the two principles who are pressing the king to join them, Resin, the king of Aram, and Pekah, the king of Israel, would soon be soldering stumps, burnt out has-beens. They were not the problem, for in a brief time, they would be no more. 

            The verbal message is reinforced by the presence of the prophet’s young son, a toddler. He bears a name which is the embodiment of the message.  The boy’s name is shar yashuv  “those remaining shall turn,”   שאר ישוב.  This is like the children of the prophet Hosea, whose children bore names that are messages, but in that case the names are laments, “no mercy” and “not my people.” The name of Isaiah’s son is a message of hope. The “turn” is not turning back but turning around into a new future. The prophetic school profoundly loyal the house of David, thinks of the whole as all Israel and the anticipated loss of the north, and possible losses for Jerusalem and Judah would reduce it perhaps to a tenth.  What in any case would remain would be a remnant, made up of those remaining (Judah) and those surviving (of the northern tribes) who would be the future that God willed for Israel.

            The Ahaz is warned: “If you will not believe, then you will not be faithful

                                                              לא תאמינו כי לא תאמנו אם.

The problem in the eye of the prophetic school is not what Jerusalem and Judah would do in the short run, but what they would become in the long run in a transformed world. Not-to-change is not-to-exist. Israel/Judah’s role as a kingdom would be seriously limited, eventually done away with. Its future was as an amen, a faith community.  

            Ahaz’s disbelieve is expected for the prophet school holds the doctrine as it indicates in chapter 6:9-13 that “hearing they will not understand and seeing they will comprehend.” For this reason, Isaiah is prepared a sign, in spite of Ahaz protestation that he would not test God by asking for a sign.  The sign is yet another child in this case who will soon be born of a young woman and his name will be Immanuel.  (God with us).  This child is reflection of an altered state of Israel’s existence, and it indicates that the prophesy will be fulfilled in a short time, before the child knows how to reject evil and choose good, in a matter of months not years.

            It will come as no surprise that this text has resulted in a heated dispute between Christians who take this to be a messianic prophesy and that the mother is to be a virgin and Jews who take this as historic event which would be fulfil in the near future and for the mother to be a young wife in the current court. In fact, this announcement is an announcement of a birth that is to happen in the near present near at hand.  How else could it a sigh for Ahaz? This is confirmed in a special way, for Isaiah, outside of the narrative, in a text composed shortly after the confrontation at the spring, refers to the land, Judah and Jerusalem, as belonging to Immanuel, either because the child has been or will be born in it. In chapter 9, composed not long after the event, the child’s birth is announced: 9:3 “For a child has been born, a son given. . .” The birth of Ahaz’s son Hezikiah seem the best if not the only way to understand this.

            This is the first of a number of uses of a birth and a naming of child as a prophet symbol of hope.  It attests to a passionate belief in the capacity of the Davidic family to produce heirs to the throne and thus to renew the life of Israel.  In time this theme will take on a messianic sense, well before the Christian appropriation, which like other appropriations errors only in claiming to own it.  What is common to this symbol is the orientation of history to an open future.

            The narrative is suspended with verse 17 to make way for a theological reflection, a characteristic of the prophetic school. It comes first as a judgment: “The Lord will bring upon you, upon your people, upon the house of your fathers, days which are unlike any since the when Ephriam turn treacherously form Judah.” The use of a literary unit as ground for a theological relation is a signature of the prophetic school. 

            Ending a text is, however, always difficult, as a later day readers, even the author himself, are tempted to amendment it.  So, in a clumsy way someone clarifies the fly and the bee who God is summoning.  The fly is in from the canals of Egypt and the bee is “in the land of the Assyrians.”  The way is opened for him or others to add a series cameos, as Blenkinsopp calls them, four in all, on the disasters of war.  All of which likely came from within the prophet school as it appears that the Isaiah school did not publish their texts but held them in house for their own use and only sometime in the fifth century actual published the text we know as the Isaiah scroll.  The final cameo will prove to be a hallmark of the school, the disaster of a depopulated land, the bad news, on which “the ox roam freely and sheep and goats wander about” the good news.

            Having such a vivid and detailed record of an event of this order is unusual if not unique.  The reason that this happened is that the prophetic school of Jerusalem identified it a significant, if not the essential source, for the theological reflection that could allow them to find their path through what they had discerned as unstoppable force the Assyrian Empire that confronted them.  By identifying this force as God’s will, they transformed the experience of it from a meaningless wave violence to be endured into a meaning punishment which would transform them into future Israel with a world mission.  Their challenge was the theological discern of how they need to be changed.

            As the Isaiah editor was creating this narrative, other elements of the Isaiah school were creating additional textual material which was to be archived in the Prophetic school.  They continue with theological reflections, which yielded the content of Chapter 9 and 10. And recorded reactions of the part of the youthful Isaiah as lived in the aftermath of the prophesy.  These will find a place alongside of the historical narrative when the school pulled them together into the literary unit which we know as Chapter 3-12, proto-Isaiah. 

            In the next  we turn to the reactions of Isaiah which occurred in the aftermath of the prophetic event.

 This is the publication of the second talk in the Isaiah Project.  The first can be found on the Elder's You Tube channel and the second one will be published there as well.  Comments would be most welcome as this project is seeking deepen the level in which capable of carryout its exploration of the Isaiah Scroll, which we regard as a central mystery of the Word becoming text. 

We have begun a series of talks on the Isaiah Scroll, this being the second.  

What makes a close reading of the Isaiah scroll so fascinating is that through it, one is able to experience the spiritual effort of a Biblical community responding to their history as it is unfolding.  This is a contrast to other readings of the Biblical text, say of Exodus, in which the spiritual effort is responding to a remote history that is finished, and is being used as a surrogate for their own historical moment.  The latter case is haunted by a vagueness about the past being remembered and about a present seeking answers through remembering.  The events of the 12^th century BCE migration out of Egypt are obscure and the persons doing so in the 8^th century, or the 7th century, or even later, are equal obscure. But in the Isaiah scroll we are dealing with clear verifiable historical events and with individuals whose presence can be clearly felt by us as they struggle to make theological sense of what is happening to them.  This is both exciting and useful for us who are engaged in our own attempt to come to a theological understanding of what we are going through and with our own need for a theological vision of our future. 

In this second talk we will begin by taking on the early part of the Isaiah scroll which begins with chapter 3 and ends with chapter 12.   In our last talk we looked at the splendid Hebrew poem which constitutes Chapter 12, a poem likely familiar to us because we sing it as a hymn or canticle, “Surely is God who saves us.”   Well one might ask, what sort of writer makes use of a poem for closure! This writer has, I will attempt to demonstrate, also opens his text with a poem, namely, verses 1 through 7 of Chapter 3.  We also noted in our past talk that this section of the text references particular dates, 641 BCE, the year king Uzziah died, and again 634 the year in which Isaiah confronted King Ahaz on the road that passes by the Gihon spring on the east side of the city of David.  It also provides enough specific information that we can imagine the date in which this text was finalized, which is sometime after 722, when Samaria, the capital of the Northern kingdom fell to the Assyrians, and some time before the death of King Ahaz, 615, referenced in Chapter 13, and, therefore, well before Assyria lay siege to Jerusalem 701.  The composition of text must happen around 720.

 The core of this text, which one might consider the first installment of the Isaiah scroll, is this encounter king and prophet.  Uriah was king for fifty years, his last years as co-regent with his son Jotham.  His advisors no doubt continued not only during the coregency but also to the end of Jotham reign.  One can imagine the impatience of a new generation to assume power with the young king. 

 Just as one can imagine the anxiety of the school of Jerusalem prophets, to which the equally young Isaiah had been called, had about the capacity of the new leadership to deal with impending crisis that the kingdom faced. 

 With this in mind let us look at the open unit of Chapter 3, which is a poem or at least, poetic prose.

                  האדון הנה כי

              מסיר צבאןת יהוה

              ומיהודה מירושלם

                   ומשענה משען

        מים-וכל לחם-משען כל

 

Isn’t a fact that the Lord,

            Yahweh of the Hosts is removing

            from Jerusalem and from Judah

            the supply, the essential supply;

            all the supply of bread,

            and all the supply of water.

 Note first that adonai is not in its common form, but is modified by the definite article, ה and ends with ון- on, a suffix which intensifying a noun and which is common in Hebrew poetry.  In this case this special treatment seems dictated by a desire for a kind of cadence, 6 beats, then repeated once, and then ending in line of 8.  There is also a consonance which is made possible by the use of the Hebrew participles that are made with the performative מ, m, along with the m ending on the words Jerusalem, bread and water. ירושלם לחם מים.  This brief text rings with the m sound.   

             The text begins in an unusual manner, not in the way one would expect a prophetic statement, but in the manner of a declaration of a present fact.  There are a number of ways to indicate a prophetic oracle, for example, common in Isaiah is the term משאת “harsh prophesy” as at the beginning of Chapter 13 and following.  Another form makes use of the verb נאם  נאם-אדני, “says the Lord,” as can be seen in the editorial insertion in this text, verse 15. Here however we read הנה כי which has been a puzzle for translators.  The first word is the very common word for “because” or the demonstrative “that”.  The second word is the equally common command, “behold.”  I would suggest that this unusual conjunction in this case should be read as a declarative, “Isn’t it a fact.”  Isn’t it a fact that God has taken away the sufficient support of bread and water?  More important than material failure is the failure in governance. Key individuals are missing: hero and warrior, judge and prophet, soothsayer and elder, captain of fifty and the man of esteem, the counselor and skilled crafts man and one who discerns the secrets, literally, what is whispered, rumored about. The new people, on the other hand, disrespect their elders.  “They behave haughtily, the youth against the elder and the base against the honorable.”  In summation, verse 8, beginning with the same כי: key, “In fact Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah is fallen.”

            The attempt to understand these alleged circumstances is colored by the later sieges of Jerusalem’s history, 701 by Sennacherib and 587 by Nebuchadnezzar.  That causes the text to be read as “a judgement oracles (Childes p. 33) forecasting these later traumatic events. An example is translation of Rosenberg, and others, who translate the verb forms, that are clearly past or presently on-going action, as futures: The plain reading of v.4 שרים נערים ונתתי, is “I have (or am setting) youth as princes, and v. 5 העם ונגש, the people are, or are being oppressed.  In the end it is not what someone will do to Jerusalem and Judah, but what they have done to themselves. Their timing could not be worse, for the prophetic school is acutely aware of the rise of the Assyrian empire and the way it was about to transform life in the Levent.  Already they see that Damascus, a long-time enemy, will be overrun and not long afterward the Northern Kingdom bring Assyria to the borders of Judah.

            Having identified this unit as a poem, the question becomes, how did the prophetic school employ such a poetic unit and why did they choose it to begin what is in effect the first installment of the Isaiah scroll? 

            I would suggest that such poetic units were seen as a basis for theological refection.  The reflective process would take place in a gathering of elders/disciples of the prophetic community. It would unfold in a series of distinctive steps.  The first step was to identify a judgment that would be passed, second, the nature of judgment and resulting loss, and third, the element of hope for a future in the context of the loss. The process is substantially theologizing. This being the first instant we will have to wait for confirmation that this pattern as a substantial feature of the Isaiah scroll.  We will not, however, wait long for a second poetic unit which undergoes this process is “the song of the beloved vineyard” the very next chapter, Chapter 5.  For now, in verse 11 of this chapter, let note the “woe,” which states the judgment to come: “Your men shall fall by the sword and your warriors in war. . . (the city’s) gates shall lament, and morn and she shall be emptied out and she shall sit on the ground.”   

             The result is that on that day of judgment there will be seven women for every man and each women will plead to be called by that one’ name in order that their reproach be may be removed.  In the future exercise of this process the result of judgment is the reduction of the population in which the land is emptied, re-wilded.  For example, in 7:21 we read “On that day one will keep alive a young cow and two sheep, and eat curds because of the abundance of milk that they give; for everyone who is left in the land shall eat curd and honey.”  There appears in such a formula a bad news, good news dynamic.  In this case life will go on, marriage and children will happen, and seconding that, “on that day “the sprout of the Lord shall be for beauty and for honor and the fruiting of the land, for greatness and for glory for the survivors of Israel.” Early on commentators identify this as a messianic text, Christian, but also Rabbinic Judaism and even by the late member of the prophetic school itself before it final publication.        

               Thus, it anticipates the “messianic” text which will be found later as in Chapter 7, verse 14 and Chapter 11, verse 1, ויצא חטר מגזע ישי משרשיו. It is significant that while the birth of child is at stake in these examples, the terminology is not the same.  This, I take it, indicates that this is not so much an actual form of messianic expectation as it is a profound faith in capacity of the Davidic dynasty to renew itself.  This translates into a faith in the future which in time becomes faith in the messiah. The future orientation of the Isaiah scroll from beginning to end is a theological revolution, to which we are all heirs.

            The future, in the Isaiah orientation is also accompanied by forgiveness, in this case a washing from “filth” and “blood.” What is interesting with chapter 3-4 is, that these themes that will be found throughout the Isaiah scroll, occur here, one might say, survive here, in a manner that suggest that are an early, if not the original occurrence of these themes.

            We began this section with two questions: How did the school use such a poetic unit and why was it chosen to begin what in effect is the first installment of the Isaiah scroll.  The answer to the first question is that the school used the poetic units as the beginning of their theological reflection. The poetic text held truth in a way that needed to be unpacked, theologically.

            Second it sets out the coming transformation of Levent life by the rise of the Assyrian Empire.  With Chapter 5 and 6 the lay the background for the message that Isaiah would carry to King Ahaz.  It is the foundation story of the Isaiah scroll.

In our next talk we will turn to Chapter 7 and see in what way the event of the meeting prophet and king set the agenda of the Isaiah scroll.

 

 

Isaiah Project: An Annotated Bibliography

 

For those following the Isaiah project this is a current list of my reading. 

 

Joseph Blenkinsopp, Isaiah 1- 39, Volume 18A The Anchor Yale Bible, Yale University Press, 2000

-- Isaiah 40 - 55, Volume 19A The Anchor Yale Bible, Yale University Press, 2002

-- Isaiah 56 - 66, Volume 20A The An

chor Yale Bible, Yale University Press, 2004

--A History of Prophecy in Israel Revised and Enlarged, Westminster John Knox Press 1983

 

Brevard S. Childs Isaiah A Commentary, The Old Testament Library Westminster John Knox Press 2001

Childs has served as the reference for our first read.  His commentary references all the critical historical studies of the Isaiah text.  In the end Childs is a canonist, that is after a critical historical approach it is  the received text which counts as reference for church teaching.  It is the basis of a Protestant dogmatic.

 

Blenkinksopp is the basis for the second reading which is currently underway.  He is duly aware of the critical historical studies of the Isaiah text.  He is properly part of the redactionist studies which took over critical studies in the eighties.  In his view editors are as interesting as original authors.  His commentary is more amenable to Catholic systematic.

 

J. Blake Couey’s recently published work: Reading the poetry of First Isaiah: The Most Perfect Model of the Prophetic Poetry, Oxford Press 2015.

                                                                                                                                                                  

Zev L. Farber and Jacob L. Wright, Archeology and History of Eighth Century Judah. SBL Press, Atlanta, 2018.

 

This volume is a collection of a number of essays relevant to the recognition that the 8^th century, the time frame in which the Isaiah scroll had its beginnings, is place for enquires about how the Biblical text has its origins.  It is a value background for the study of the Isaiah text.

 

Israel Finkelstein  The Forgotten Kingdom The Archaeology and History of Northern Israel, SBL Press 2013

 

Finkelstein arguments about the nature of Judah are part of what compelled the study listed above.  Archeology suggests that Judah the southern kingdom is minor organization in relation to the much larger northern kingdom. He argues that with the fall of the Northern Kingdom 722 a large migration took place to the Sourtern Kingdom. 

 

A. J. Rosenburg The Book of Isaiah Volume One and Volume Two A New English Translation of the Text, Rashi and Commentary Digest The Judaica Press 1982

 

I have uses Rosenburg as an access to the Masoretic text of Isaiah and have value of a Jewish commentary on the text.

 

I would welcome any suggestions for this Bibliography.  The Elder of Omaha

 

As the Easter Season of 2024 comes to an end, I am posting two new poems which came as a result of trying to think about the mystery of the Resurrection.  This has been colored by thoughts about the Trinity that have been part of installation of the Icon of Abraham and Sarah Hospitality in the Narthex of All Saints.   In particular around the person of the Holy Spirit whose agency has lack clarification in the Western Church.  In a recent video posted on You Tube, I ask the question where was the Holy Spirit at the Crucifixion?  A dove darkly resting on the cross, as in Fra Lippi famous painting, is little help. 

Lying here in the bed,

          I am ready to be led

          by the Father onto that eternal shore.

          into the nether dark, where times past

          are stored, waiting for the last;

 

          to be joined to the Son

          fine ground flour and baked

          which taken from the oven

          will be fed to a hungering world;

         

          to be swirled in the Wind

          like a bright red kite

          Dancing in the light and

          drawing string across a web

 

          becoming light in his light

          word in his word;

          breath in her breath

          second wind in her wind;

Rising there from the dead.

 

 

Where was the Spirit?

 

Where was the Spirit,

          when the body of the Word

          hung upon the cross?

Brooding, I should think, o’re the growing chaos

          in that body as it was in the beginning.

 

          To the world2023 the cross was the end,

          but to the Trinity it was the door,

          which opened into the depth of the Father’s treasure,

          of all times past.  Receiving now the threads

           of the recent times of that body hung upon that tree,

          where the Spirit new weaves it,

          and into it all past times,

          A New Creation!  Christ Risen from the Dead!

Hear more on the Elder of Omaha You Tube channel, First Thursday May 2024.

 

Footnote for “When I Pray the Book of Psalms”

Page 123 in On Giving My Word

 

“When I Pray The Book of Psalms” was included in First Thursday of February 2024, and came with the promise that the references it makes the Book of Psalms would be published on this blog site, for the curious.  The term Hassidim come from Psalm 149:5 where the word occurs. Hassidim a common term in the Hebrew Testament that identifies a pious person.  It is translated as “saints” KJ, or “Faithful Ones” RSV.  The Wisdom Editor identifies the person or persons who published the Psalms in the form that we currently have them.  They introduced the book with Psalm 1 and closed with Psalm 150.  Psalm from their school were added throughout the book and make up roughly a quarter to the psalms.  Their signature work is Psalm 119 which is an elaborate acrostic, literally a book within a book.  The Performer indicated a number of individuals, minstrel, who actually performed the works in the setting of the Temple or the Court.   Psalm 2 is a good example where the voice of the performer is essential to understand it original sense.  Often the grammar of Psalm is sketchy, and it reminds one that the text was an oral event and passed on as an oral event.  For these performers the text was a prompt as opposed to something to be read. Some actually announce their presence as in Psalm 45.  Suffering Servant identifies himself the author in Psalm 22.  It is the well-known lament quote by Jesus from the cross.  The Levite refers to one of the Levite ministers of the Temple who assisted the more restrict group of priests.  One the major Levite clans identified themselves as “sons of Korah.”  There is a large block of psalm that are attributed to them, beginning with Psalm 42.  Psalm 42 was probably once the opening psalm of a Levite collection.  That collection was expanded at some point with psalms attribute “sons of Asaph.”  The first of these is Psalm 73.  The Shepherd King is, of course, King David to whom a number psalm are attributed and in more generalize sense of authorship the whole Book of Psalm.   Psalm 18:34-35 is an example of where David presence is particularly clear.  The Dethroned King is probably King Jehoiachin who was exiled by the Babylonians.   His lament is found in Psalm 89:38-51.  The Children refers to the exiled Israelite who are the author of Psalm 137.  These are start of those individuals of faith that one will meet when you pray the Book of Psalms.

  

 

A Tanner Sighting

 

            Or better “citing.”  It was spotted in the recent edition of the Anglican Theological Review, Vol. 105.  It occurs in an article, “Toward an Anthropologically Engaged Theology: Implication from Human Evolution for Theological Anthropology” by Matthew T. Seddon.  Seddon has a PHD in Anthropology, the study of human development.  He is a scientist, but he is also an Episcopal Priest functioning in parish ministry.  He is also an academically grounded theologian.  One should not let the big words put you off for this is a very readable essay on the way Theology can and should engage science.  The tradition of theology engaging science has a long history in the Anglican World.  One thinks of Charles Gore book Lux Mundi, published 1888, in which he declared his belief in a Christianity that could court the demands of human reason.  More recently, the particle physicist turned Anglican priest and theologian, the Revd. Dr John Polkinghorne, made a significant contribution to this tradition.  The politicalization of theology in the recent decades, however, has eclipsed this tradition, so it was refreshing to see Seddon essay in the Anglican Theological Review. 

            As he ended his paper, he cites Tanner’s Theories of Culture: A New Agenda for Theology (Guides to Theological Inquiry) 1997.  His paraphrase, page 423 of ATR, aptly summarizing his paper and its ambitions.  “Furthermore, this understanding indicates that the Imago Dei is not static: it is emergent, and we share in that emergence.  We are and always have been becoming—becoming more fully human—not just in our intellectual, spiritual, and moral lives, but in our very being.  Indeed, our diversity which is in many ways an expression of creativity, reveals that we are supremely creative, which validates the use of theological creativity.”

               The possibility of an anthropologically engaged theology carried out with in the structures of Tanner’s systematic theology is not only imaginable, but it is beneficial to both.    In a sense it verifies Tanner’s claim that her systematic can be tested in experiential theology, be it the life of Christ, the 16^th century debate about grace or a contemporary engagement with science.  A scientific endeavor theological engaged, carried out in systematic like Tanner’s, would have the benefit of a linkage with the moral and meaning for the human endeavor. An objective science has for some time been content to operate without this link, but in the present climate I think that has become quested.