Richard S. Hess and Gordon J. Wenham on Making the Old Testament Live

Richard S. Hess and Gordon J. Wenham (eds.), Make the Old Testament Live: From Curriculum to Classroom (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), x + 218pp.

[The following is a lightly-edited version of a review first written in February 1999 and published on London School of Theology’s website.]

Whether in the church or the classroom, the Old Testament (bar a few choice passages) is typically undervalued and underused, viewed largely as problematic and inaccessible. It’s such neglect that this collection of essays seeks to address and redress. It’s worth taking notice of such books – perhaps especially when they’re produced by evangelical scholars and teachers (many of the essays began as papers for the Old Testament study group of the Tyndale Fellowship).

And this volume has the added bonus of the contributions being drawn from those who teach Old Testament in different institutional settings (university, seminary, theological college), in various confessional contexts (e.g., avowedly Christian, and as part of a Religious Studies course), drawn from different geographical and situational contexts (Europe, USA, Latin America, Australia, South Africa). There are individual essays on teaching the Old Testament in the context of Islam, and in the Two Thirds World, along with reflections on being a research student and a research supervisor. Such ‘variety’ in background is an appealing plus to the collection, even more so that the variety does not prevent a general ‘unity’ of thought from emerging throughout.

The essays are organised under three headings – Content, Context, and Communication (the bulk of them in the second section) – although the three categories are inevitably blurred. The book tends to read a little like a serious after-dinner discussion with teachers of the Bible (the Old Testament, in particular) talking to one another along the lines of: ‘This is how I do it in my context, and here’s a brief outline of my course, and how I see it fitting into the larger curriculum.’

For me, that raises perhaps the main problem with the book: the question of its intended audience and goals. If interested ‘lay’ people would like the opportunity to eavesdrop on such a conversation between the professionals (and what a significant opportunity!), they might find this to be an interesting book. But it will take them only so far. There’s little here on practical points relating to reading and appropriating the Old Testament for aspects of life and spirituality today, or for working with integrity through some of the standard ‘hard’ issues (e.g., mass genocide, patriarchalism). In this sense, the title of the book fails to live up to initial expectation.

On the other hand, the book seems to address fellow academics and teachers. Such readers might enjoy hearing what their peers do elsewhere, and can imagine adding their own contribution to such a discussion. But, again, it will take them only so far.

With a few exceptions (Craig Bartholomew’s contribution springs to mind), the essays contain more descriptive statement than careful argument. To take one example, most contributors state the importance of relating Old Testament texts and theology to New Testament texts and theology; but there is little extended reflection on why we need to do so, how we do so, the possible dangers involved, and what differences it might make to Christian theology and ethics more generally conceived. This is perhaps exacerbated by the fact that the final section on ‘Communication’ contains only two essays – the first on learning and teaching biblical Hebrew, and the second on general pedagogy, with only passing reference to the Old Testament. Both are fine in their own right, but (alas) don’t really move the collection forward enough from ‘context’ to ‘communication’. Alongside this, there is little recognition – positive or negative – of current contributions from scholars working in literary theory and cultural studies (ideological criticism, for instance).

In short, much more is probably needed truly to ‘make the Old Testament live’, but the collection is extremely helpful as a first statement of the concerns of some evangelical Old Testament scholars, and as an indication of some paths for us to explore now and in the future.