Paul Riemann taught Old Testament at Harvard University and Drew University. His special interests in Psalms and the nature of prayer coalesce in the instant treatment of Calvin and the prayer psalms. In the first chapter of this short volume, Reimann announces his thesis “that the piety implicit in the prayer psalms and the piety Calvin himself endorsed and espoused differ significantly.” According to Riemann, the reformer and the psalms have “fundamentally different perceptions of prayer, what it is, why one engages in it, what one hopes to achieve by it” (1–2). Dissonant Pieties explores the reasons for these differences and their significant implications. The introduction also describes Riemann’s methodology. First, the volume focuses on Calvin and his own historical setting. Second, Riemann accepts Calvin’s judgments about text, translation, authorship and historical setting, even where they may differ with modern biblical scholarship.
In chapter two, “Discerning a Savor of Intemperance,” Riemann describes the evolving prominence of the psalms in Calvin’s reflections on prayer. While writing a commentary on the psalms, Calvin had been compelled to wrestle with differences between the psalter’s accountings of prayers by biblical saints and his own theological stance. In Calvin’s estimation, appropriate prayer always requires reverence, submission to the will of God, earnest desire, humble penitence, and unwavering faith. Yet he often finds these elements lacking in the Psalms. Consequently, Calvin views the book more as a record of human struggles to frame prayers rightly than a collection of model prayers. He attributes the questionings and challenging of God he finds reflected in psalmists’ prayer texts to the extreme, sometimes overwhelming, circumstances they endured. Consequently, the petitioners were sometimes not possessed of and regulated by their full emotional faculties. Notably, Calvin also affirms that prayer has no effect on God’s actions or attitudes. Instead, God calls for prayer because it changes the hearts and minds of petitioners. Riemann doubts religious communities would have preserved, collected, and utilized the prayer psalms so diligently in liturgy and devotion if they perceived the same flaws as Calvin.
In the third chapter, “Unfolding the Inmost Feelings of David,” Riemann further explains the relationship between Calvin’s massive commentary on the Psalms and his revision and expansion of The Institutes of the Christian Religion. Calvin writes more extensively on the prayer psalms in his expansions than he does on the chapter dealing directly with prayer and often excuses the petitioners for failing to clearly follow his pious expectations. In Calvin’s estimation, seeming failures in the prayers are not always actual because petitioners implicitly do the very things he deems necessary. In other instances, extenuating circumstances compromise the psalmists’ ability to pray rightly. This chapter also treats several rhetorical elements Calvin identifies in the prayer psalms. For Calvin, this persuasive speech only reflects human weakness. While it may be efficacious in changing the petitioner’s heart and mind, it has no divine effect because the God of heaven is immutable, and thus cannot be moved or persuaded. Riemann questions the validity of Calvin’s conclusions and claims the reformer’s suppositions anachronistically transform the prayer psalms into something wholly different than originally intended.
Chapter 4, entitled “Appropriating Psalter Piety,” describes ways in which Calvin identifies with David and the implications of this identification for the reformer’s exegesis of the psalms. Calvin acknowledges his autobiographical bent, and Riemann supplements the admission with details about challenges Calvin faced and his severe reactions to religious rivals. According to Riemann, the reformer apologizes for David’s seeming intemperance and appropriates it himself. Calvin rather incredibly characterizes David’s complaints and invectives as displays of righteous indignation that are not motivated by his personal desires for retribution. Instead, as a proper consequence of his office as king, David only seeks to do God’s will by visiting judgment on transgressors. According to Calvin, David’s stern expressions are not appropriate for general audiences and must not be followed by most readers. Yet, even though Calvin held no formal office, he correlates his circumstances with David’s circumstances in a manner that allows him a similar license to what would otherwise be proscribed hostility and vengeance.
In the fifth chapter, “Recognizing the Piety of the Prayer Psalms,” the author makes an affirmative presentation of the piety he perceives in the prayer psalms and directly contrasts it with Calvin’s perceptions. According to Riemann, piety refers to “shared perceptions of, attitudes toward, and responses to the divine,” and the conceptions of piety displayed in the prayer psalms are markedly different than Calvin understands them. The reformer wrests the prayers from their contexts and reframes them to fit his thesis and expectations. In fact, the psalmists maintained radically different notions about what is appropriate in prayer. They viewed God as much more like humans and far more open to persuasion than Calvin. The psalmists are also more confident than Calvin supposes. Consequently, Riemann concludes, “Calvin’s portrait of the psalmists is no longer recognizable.” The author believes Calvin, like Luther, improperly imposed the conventions of his own time upon the texts he studied.
The short, concluding chapter frankly reveals Riemann’s impetus for writing this volume. In his experience, Calvin’s perspective on the piety reflected in the psalter persists in modern scholarship, much to Riemann’s chagrin. He credits Calvin as an able interpreter who recognized the dissonance between his view of piety and that reflected in the psalter. However, because Calvin could not, or would not, receive the prayer psalms on their own terms, he failed to glean vital lessons the texts intended to teach. This, says Riemann, is a weakness in Calvin’s unquestionably rich legacy, and Dissonant Pieties cautions against modern exegetes repeating this mistake.
This volume may not be of interest to general audiences, but it provides an intriguing introduction to Calvin’s influence on reading and applying the psalter. Riemann fairly describes the reformer’s approach, underlying assumptions, and likely motivations while providing primary evidence throughout from Calvin’s commentaries. Although Riemann disagrees with Calvin’s conclusions and modern scholars who follow the reformer, this volume offers balanced analysis that effectively cautions against following Calvin and is a helpful resource for those who would like to contemplate piety and the prayer psalms critically.