Autor: Voegelin, Eric

Buch: Israel and Revelation

Titel: Israel and Revelation

Stichwort: Psalm: Ungenügen der formkritischen und kultfunktionalen Methode (Gunkel, Mowinckel)

Kurzinhalt: Von der Klassifizierung nach literarischen Kriterien zum Sitz im Leben; Linee, Mendel; Kritik an Mowinckel: auch der Kult muss hinterfragt werden auf die Struktur der Ordnung

Textausschnitt: The classification thus proceeded under the assumption that to every type constructed by the form-critical method, there corresponded unequivocally a setting which had motivated this particular literary form. In the practice of analysis, however, difficulties were encountered from both terms of the relation. On the one hand, the types did not form a simple catalogue - the system was complicated by the classification of numerous Psalms under more than one head, as well as by the construction of subtypes and mixed forms. On the other hand, Gunkel had no well-founded theory about what constituted a setting in life - hence, the assignment of settings had no more critical weight than could be gained from the types themselves in combination with a few general notions about the course of Israelite religious history. A considerable degree of arbitrariness and uncertainty attached to Gunkel's work because of its character as a botanical classification in the manner of a Linnaean system. Since this analogy was drawn by Gunkel himself, we may be allowed to draw it out and formulate the task that had become obvious as the advance from Linné to the genetics of Mendel and Weismann.
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At the time when Mowinckel's conception was in formation, the comparative materials from Babylon and Egypt had increased substantially, and in addition he had experienced the influence of the Danish anthropologist Vilem Groenbech. The idea of a unique spiritual history of Israel began to be overshadowed by the recognition of the close resemblance between the institutions and cults of Israel and those of the neighboring civilizations. As far as the interpretation of the Psalter was concerned, Mowinckel saw that a considerable number of Psalms became intelligible if they were understood as connected with an Israelite New Year festival of the same type as the Babylonian, which had become better known recently, ...
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56/9 While Mowinckel's cult-functional conception was a definite improvement on Gunkel's form-critical method, it still suffered from the same weaknesses, though to a lesser degree. To be sure, Mowinckel had penetrated from the "botanical" surface of literary forms to the "genetic" depth of the cult that motivates the form. Nevertheless, the cult itself has a function in the order of society, and while it is a distinguishable unit, it is not an ultimate object in a critical science of order. Unless one penetrates beyond the cult into the order of which it is a function, the botanical superficialism with its theoretical weaknesses will repeat itself on the level of a cult-functional study of the Psalms. The difficulty of Mowinckel's position has become apparent in the continuing debate about his assumption of an Israelite New Year festival with a ritual enthronement of Yahweh, for the existence of the festival, which explains the Psalms, is inferred from the Psalms it is supposed to explain. This circle cannot be broken through reference to other sources that would unequivocally attest the existence of the festival, since ... The position can be strengthened and the circle broken only through the theoretical argument that the assumed enthronement festival belongs essentially to a complex of symbols which is characteristic for a certain type of order, and that an order of this type is present in Israel because other parts of the characteristic complex of symbols can be found in the Old Testament beyond a doubt.