Restating the Psalter’s Perspectives on Divine Justice in Philosophical Terms

Abstract

Prominent 20 th -century Old Testament theologians have offered comparative-philosophical restatements of the Psalter’s perspectives on YHWH’s justice in descriptive metaphysical terms. A variety of philosophical idioms were used to affirm/deny that justice was an attribute (or similar) of the divine nature (or similar) or instead predicated of or exemplified in divine functions and/or relations. In this article the associated trend in the research is identified and briefly discussed with reference to representative cases. This is followed by an overview of how concepts, concerns and categories in the analytic philosophy of properties can be used to update, refine and expand the explanatory framework for discussing related texts in the Book of Psalms on their own terms, even if not in them.

Keywords

• OT theology
• Psalms
• justice
• divine attributes
• properties (analytic philosophy)
• descriptive metaphysics
• comparative philosophy