On 2008-12-17 Aquinatis, Paris wrote: Having read several books by Nichols which I found having a good (academic) level and dealing with recent authors or issues, I was having similar expectations with this book. However this book is quite popular (I should have paid attention to the publisher), one of these books in which the author uses up your patience by taking ten pages to say what could be said in one page.
Moreover the stuff dealt is quite « stuffy ». This book deals with the Old Testament, but mostly dated works seem to have been consulted. Nichols somehow shortly (and rightly) criticizes the outdated and flawed classic source hypothesis, but refuses to show any interest in the fragment theory (e.g. see the synthetic works of Thomas Römer on the the Yahwist or the Deuteronomist, actually the Deuteronomist school) which solves the problems of both the fundamentalist and classic source views : ´I do not wish to follow those, who... would depreciate its [the OT] likely historical value even more´... Where is the honest inquiry here?
After many pages (chapters 1-3) of paraphrasing the Old Testament (with views I found naive in regard of OT scholarship) Nichols explains what he is after: attempting to refute the views of several protestant theologians or exegetes on the Old Testament (´ Neo-Marcionism´, ch. 4):
- Schleiermacher (Christians should not ling to the letter of the law and thus not to the OT...);
- Harnack (the OT tribal god is antithetical to the NT theology about Jesus, likewise for ethics);
- Bultmann (the OT is misleading and the little value it has can also be found in Greek tragedy or some philosophies).
Nichol replies by reusing outdated answers to this problem, namely typological interpretation of the OT, citing (mostly obscure) OT exegetes like A. G. Herbert who wrote around the 1940´s (ch. 5) or likewise outdated, not so well know NT exegetes (ch. 6-8). The more famous authors he cites are von Rad for the OT and Dodd for the NT, in any case all being outdated scholars. He then elaborates a bit on typological hermeneutics, drawing on famous Catholic French theologians like Danielou or de Lubac who wrote in the middle of the twentieth century. Some latter chapters are somewhat more substantial, dealing with pope Gregory on Job, Origen on the Song of Songs, and Aquinas on the Pentateuch. They serve as examples of what Nichols means. The book ends with a bibliography which is quite outdated, and misses some of the most important older books on the subject, such as Henri Clavier´s Les Variétés de la pensée biblique et le problème de son unité (Brill, 1975), whose conclusion (e.g. his citation of Marc 2:22) on the relationship between the two testaments (p. 364-365) differs quite from Nichols´ .
I did not find in the answers provided by Nichols a convincing refutation of « neo-marcionism ». Had he also more dealt with exegesis, he would have also noted another problem in need of answer: the liberties, the misuse of the OT by the NT authors. . And summed up by saying Quite disappointing compared to other books by Nichols. Currently Lovely, Like Jerusalem: The Fulfillment of the Old Testament in Christ and the Church has an overall rating of 4 over 10.
Lovely, Like Jerusalem: The Fulfillment of the Old Testament in Christ and the Church can also be found in the following searches:
Ignatius Press claimed ´You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love, lovely like Jerusalem.´ --Song of Songs The highly regarded spiritual writer and theologian Fr. Aidan Nichols, O.P. presents an overview of the Old Testament by showing what it is and its relationship to the New Testament. He explains that it is essential for one to be familiar with the Old Testament in order to understand properly, and in a deeper way, the richness and message of the New. In particular, Fr. Nichols shows how important it is to grasp that connection in order to understand better and to believe in the message and the person of Christ. Ignorance of the Old Testament makes it impossible to comprehend the entire divine plan that stretches between the two Testaments. Nichols maintains that we are ill-equipped to read and understand the great theologians, saints, and Scripture commentators of the Christian era without a deep familiarity with the Old Testament. Even understanding and appreciating the art of the Church remains limited if the Old Testament is a closed book for us. Nichols made use of studies by biblical experts from various Christian denominations--notably Evangelicals and Anglicans--in writing this widely appealing work. He also drew on the Fathers and Doctors of the Church to help illuminate the beauty of the relationship between the two Testaments. ´In this marvelous work of biblical theology and patristic ressourcement, Aidan Nichols illumines the pattern of God´s promises in salvation history in a manner that will be accessible and informative to students, pastors, and scholars. Other than Pope Benedict XVI, no theologian writing today has mastered so well the approach to Scripture set forth by such giants as Jean Danielou, Louis Bouyer, and Henri de Lubac. This book should be read by everyone who seeks an understanding of Scripture and of the early Christian Fathers.´ --Matthew Levering, Associate Professor of Theology, Ave Maria University
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