Otto Eissfeldt - Philosophy

Philosophy

Eissfeldt's scholarship was influenced particularly by Gabler and Søren Kierkegaard to see an uncrossable chasm between history and faith, with Religionsgeschichte or the History of religions being the prerogative of the former and Biblical Theology being the prerogative of the later. He defined the faith displayed by the Old Testament (and New Testament) as well as necessary of the Christian or Jewish believer, to be only that which is timeless and eternal and which can neither be judged by history and reason, nor judge them. Thus it was only and always from this sort of “faith” that one could pursue or benefit from Biblical Theology. In this respect, he agreed with the absolutism or idealism of Neo-Orthodoxy. He defined history as the enterprise which sought to make known, through historical-critical method, the particulars of Old Testament (and New Testament) religious times and events without accepting any value or truth judgments concerning them. Thus it was only and always from this sort of “historical” inquiry that one could pursue or benefit from Religionsgeschichte. In that respect, he agreed with the scientific positivism of liberal scholarship. In order for Eissfeldt to maintain both positions, it was necessary that they be held perpetually separate and in tension. This was also the only way each one as so defined could achieve its purest expression. His way of resolving the paradox of this separation between history and faith was a relativism that arbitrarily chose the answers from one side over the other when it seemed most beneficial to the objective or was judged to belong to the category of one side and not the other.