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This lecture offers an updated discussion on the ways in which newly emerging trends in research on the HB/OT (from 2020 onwards) are related to the philosophy of religion. A meta-philosophical typology will be utilised to contextualise religious-philosophical concepts, concerns and currents that now feature as part of HB/OT scholarship, as well as explaining why, how, where, when, and to what end this is happening. This includes identifying the religious-philosophical presuppositions, persons, periods, problems, perspectives operative within the rich diversity of present-day HB/OT hermeneutics and exegesis. the presentation concludes with some remarks on future prospects and possibilities for interdisciplinary dialogue.
Jaco Gericke is associate research professor of Ancient Culture in the Faculty of Theology at North-West University in Vanderbijlpark, South Africa. He holds doctorates in Semitic Languages (D Litt) and Old Testament (PhD) as well as a BD in Theology (with specialisation in philosophy of religion) at the University of Pretoria. His research interests include new developments in philosophical approaches to the HB, the place of philosophy of religion/philosophical theology in the history of HB interpretation and the reception of the HB in the history of philosophy of religion and philosophical theology. He has published three monographs relevant to the relationship between the HB and philosophy of religion and philosophical theology, namely
- the Hebrew Bible and Philosophy of Religion (SBL, 2012),
- What is a God? Perspectives on Divine Essence in the HB (Bloomsbury, 2017)
- A Philosophical Theology of the Old Testament: A Comparative, Historical, Experimental and Analytic Perspective (Routledge, 2020).
He regularly participates in local and international conferences in Semitics, Old Testament and Philosophy of religion. He has also published many articles/chapters and books on related themes, contributed to discussions of secular biblical criticism/atheism and OT scholarship, philosophical perspectives on the book of Qohelet as well as the reception of the HB in the writings of Nietzsche. He is happy to be part of an international research consortium on Second-Order Thinking in the Ancient Fertile Crescent, which in recent times has focussed on associated ancient texts and the concepts and concerns of epistemology. His other work obligations currently include serving on various research ethics committees, as article editor for the Journal Old Testament Essays and teaching courses on both the history and philosophy of religion to undergraduate students in the Faculty of Humanities.
