For decades, two Old Testament interpretive giants, Walter Brueggemann and Brevard S. Childs, debated unity vs. diversity, canon vs. testimony, text vs. speech. Here in one place their respective approaches are contrasted and compared.
For Brueggemann, the Old Testament is an invitation to explore the rich pluralism and diversity of Israel's testimony of faith in Yahweh, the central figure of the Old Testament. This faith was expressed in a core testimony of nouns, verbs, and adjectives that characterized God. But Brueggemann also sees a counter-testimony, which quarrels and puts the core testimony to test. For Childs, the Old Testament is an invitation to consider the deep unity and coherence of Israel's faith as found in the canon. Childs explores the sweeping canonical role of each of the individual canonical witnesses to discover a symphony of concord. Here, in one place, the positions of Brueggemann and Childs are contrasted and compared.
