Theology from an Old-Testament perspective? A theo-philosophical approach to interpreting Psalm-CXVI

What is theology in the perspective of Old Testament scholarship? A first p art sketches out five fields in which the question is specially relevant to day: 1) the search for the philosophical presuppositions of J. Ph. Gabler's useful distinction but in fact fatal separation between biblical and dogma tic theology; 2) the relation between Old and New Testament theologies; 3) the relation between a Jewish and a Christian reading of the Hebrew scriptu res; 4) the relation between Old Testament theology and history of religion ; 5) the question of the plurality of theologies in the Old Testament. It e nds by the naming of the author's theological presuppositions (the scriptur es as "ratio cognoscendi"; the mediation of the community of faith ; the "i ustificatio impii" as object of theology). The second part offers a detaile d theological interpretation of Psalm 116, which serves in the third part a s a paradigm to develop: 1) what might be called the "sitz im leben" of the ological discourse; 2) the object of theology; 3) the goal of theology.