Craig Bartholomew, Mary Healy, Karl Möller and Robin Parry (eds), Out of Egypt: Biblical Theology and Biblical Interpretation
Scripture & Hermeneutics Series, 5; Carlisle: Paternoster Press; Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2004
The Christian church confesses Scripture to be the authoritative Word of God, and thereby commits itself to seeking the inner unity of the Bible as it is focussed in the one gospel of Jesus Christ, which the church declares to the world. Biblical theology is the name for the articulation of that inner unity of the Bible, and this volume rows vigorously against the currents in mainline biblical studies as it seeks to set the table for a renewed feast of biblical theology in biblical interpretation.
Out of Egypt is the fifth volume from the Scripture and Hermeneutics Seminar. This annual gathering of Christian scholars from various disciplines was established in 1998 and aims to reassess the discipline of biblical studies from the foundations up and forge creative new ways for reopening the Bible in our cultures.
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In modernity biblical studies has stressed the diversity of Scripture to such an extent that any expression of its overarching unity is regarded with scepticism. The demise of the Biblical Theology Movement in 1961 played into this tendency, and since then biblical theology has not recovered its place as a major element in biblical interpretation. However, any approach to the Bible as Christian Scripture must recognise the need to articulate the inner unity of the Bible and hence of biblical theology. Furthermore, situated as we are in ‘post-modernity’ we are better able to see how untimely the demise of biblical theology is. This volume assesses the current state of biblical theology and sets forth in a smorgasbord of creative ways fresh directions for doing biblical interpretation.
This volume on biblical theology jumps into the fray and poses the right kind of questions. It does not offer a single way forward. Several of the essays are quite fresh and provocative, breaking new ground (Bray, Reno); others set out the issues with clarity and grace (Bartholomew); others offer programmatic analysis (Webster, Bauckham); others offer a fresh angle of view (Chapman, Martin). The success of this series is in facing the challenge of disarray in biblical studies head-on and then modelling a variety of approaches to stimulate our reflection.
Ranging widely across the latest theory and up-to-date praxis of biblical theology, this volume makes a significant contribution to the gathering renewal of that discipline on both sides of the Atlantic. With an ecumenical, star-studded team of experts in the Old and New Testaments as well as in Patristics and Christian doctrine, Out of Egypt is more than a sum of its parts: from various theoretical and practical perspectives, it demonstrates both the pedigree and the intellectual vitality of biblical theology. In so doing, this book gives continued hope for an exodus of Christian biblical interpretation from its long slavery to diverse late-modern taskmasters of historicist and ideologically revisionist deconstruction.
Biblical theology attempts to explore the theological coherence of the canonical witnesses; no serious Christian theology can overlook this issue. The essays in the present volume illustrate the complexity and richness of the conversation that results from attentive consideration of the question. In a time when some voices are calling for a moratorium on biblical theology, or pronouncing its concerns obsolete, this collection of meaty essays demonstrates the continuing vitality and necessity of the enterprise.
Contents
Biblical Theology and Biblical Interpretation: Introduction
Craig G. Bartholomew
- The Church Fathers and Biblical Theology
Gerald Bray - The Nature and Genre of Biblical Theology: Some Reflections in the Light of Charles H. H. Scobie’s ‘Prolegomena to a Biblical Theology’
Karl Möller - Some Directions in Catholic Biblical Theology
Francis Martin - The Theology of the Old Testament by Marco Nobile: A Contribution to Jewish–Christian Relations
Nuria Calduch-Benages - Mission as a Matrix for Hermeneutics and Biblical Theology
Christopher J. H. Wright - Story and Biblical Theology
Craig G. Bartholomew and Mike W. Goheen - The Problem of ‘Biblical Theology’
James D. G. Dunn - Biblical Theology and the Problem of Monotheism
Richard Bauckham - The Unity of Humankind as a Theme in Biblical Theology
Stephen C. Barton - Zechariah 14 and Biblical Theology: Patristic and Contemporary Case Studies
Al Wolters - Paul and Salvation History in Romans 9:30–10:4
William J. Dumbrell - Hebrews and Biblical Theology
Andrew T. Lincoln - Systematic – In What Sense?
Trevor Hart - Biblical Theology and the Clarity of Scripture
John Webster - Biblical Theology and Theological Exegesis
R. R. Reno - Imaginative Reading of Scripture and Theological Interpretation
Stephen B. Chapman - Biblical Theology and Preaching
Charles H. H. Scobie
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Karl Möller 