Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen, The Drama of Scripture: Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story (Grand Rapids/London: Baker Academic/SPCK, 2004/2006).
This is still probably the best of an increasing number of works doing biblical theology by foregrounding the significance of the biblical storyline for developing a distinctively Christian worldview.
The book was first published by Baker in the USA in 2004; SPCK have republished it in 2006 in a different format. The SPCK version is shorter, has fewer endnotes, and contains sections of reflection on contemporary significance and study questions (which are not found in the Baker version); but the Baker version is fuller, and contains maps and diagrams (which are not found in the SPCK version). Confused?
A pdf sample of the SPCK version is available online to… well, sample...
Bartholomew and Goheen argue that in a culture where many stories compete in offering to describe the nature of reality, it’s the biblical story that should be central to the formation of a Christian worldview. They want to say that Scripture tells God’s story, the true story of the world. We shouldn’t try to fit the Bible into a convenient space in our world, but fit our world into the Bible, to find our place in the story of the Bible, to immerse ourselves in it, so to indwell it that we begin to think and live out its perspective.
They trace the biblical story in six acts:
Act 1 – God establishes his kingdom: creation
Act 2 – Rebellion in the kingdom: fall
Act 3 – The King chooses Israel: redemption initiated
Interlude: A kingdom story waiting for an ending: the intertestamental period
Act 4 – The coming of the King: redemption accomplished
Act 5 – Spreading the news of the King: the mission of the church
Act 6 – The return of the king: redemption completed
The book is also funded by a website – ‘Scripture and Worldview’ – which contains a number of helpful resources, including articles, slide presentations used in teaching through the book, and Bible reading schedules.
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