The Old Testament as Interruption: Expanding Johann Baptist Metz's "Israelite-Biblical Paradigm"

Abstract

This project focuses on the political theology of Johann Baptist Metz and it’s critique of Enlightenment rationality or “technical reason.” I examine Metz’s critique of the Enlightenment and his counter to its defective tendencies: the fundamental concepts of memory, narrative, and solidarity encapsulated in the “dangerous memory of Jesus Christ.” My concern then shifts to biblical connections within Metz’s theology by investigating his “dangerous memory of Jesus Christ” and his “Israelite-Biblical paradigm.” I seek to expand the “Israelite-Biblical Paradigm” through the critical lens of the Frankfurt school. I throw light on three Enlightenment denials—the denial of death, tragedy, and bounded time—and then offer a biblical-theological corrective via the Old Testament. In this way recognizing the Old Testament as interruption of Enlightenment rationality furthers the insights of Metz’s Israelite-Biblical Paradigm and opens up a means by which the Old Testament may offer equally dangerous memories to the Church.