Als de goden zwijgen

Professor H.K. Miskotte wrote some significant theology in the 1950’s that went by largely unobserved by the English speaking theological world. This book (the original Dutch edition with the English translation from Collins, not until 1967: "When the Gods are Silent") most succinctly expressed most of it and became in effect a Karl Barth reader for post WWII Dutch Reformed theology. However his thought went further than the rigidity of Barth’s approach, in that he contextualised it analogically alongside the earliest Old Testamental mode of Israelite reverence for the NAME whereby yhwh/ God revealed God-self to the children of Abraham and Moses. Yet the paradox is that Miskotte is how he uses this in respect to/for humanity in modernity, with all its rationalism to boot, and addresses much of the despair and loneliness that is in his view a ‘synonymous correlative’ with post-death of God atheism and secular pluralism. It is therefore pertinently a-typical of European rationalism and ecclesial control and stands in solidarity with Judaism as well to other modalities of indigenous christian thought. Miskotte dares to show in his theology how the purposive dynamic Spirit of yhwh/God continues to bring newness and purpose into all life, even for human modernity, that has grown to become mostly inure to metaphysical and mythic story, and has become concomitantly enslaved to a desert existence of rational enquiry that has lost its own contingent essentiality and is thereby divorced from any quest for meaning. **Hence the title, for here all gods, imagined or real are silent.** Miskotte contends inadequate attention in terms of attitude to God has had the effect to make Jesus the Jew an anthropomorphism, a mere metaphor and human construct. He appeals to Judaism as well as to Christianity to reappraise their own attitude and recover first held positions before God in the Spirit of Jesus the Messiah/Christ. His theology also presents a suitable template to promote dialogue between cultures in bi- or multicultural societies like New Zealand and Australia, where indigenous faith desires relevance from other than purely western approaches of theological thought. It is therefore worthy of renewed attention. While the book is difficult to absorb and its structure is likewise complex; with some perseverance the reader will be well rewarded. Miskotte's theology is focussed on the Spirit of God in Jesus Christ as the primary object in life and worship; while it sees the things mythic and legendary from Scripture as that which enriches the narrative in its purposive address to humanity, and should not be disallowed or critically excised from reading the biblical record.