Recent developments in the history of ancient Israel and their consequences for a theology of the Hebrew bible

Recent Research has emphasized the gap between the history of ancient Israel and the stories told about Israel in the Hebrew Bible. Should a theological interpretation of the Hebrew Bible ignore these contradictions between biblical texts and historical reality and read the texts in a metaphoric or paradigmatic fashion? Or should it critically evaluate the theological conceptions developed in the biblical texts in view of the reality they are referring to? This paper argues for the second approach which is consistent not only with our contemporary worldview but also with important biblical traditions of a critical theology.