Foundations 60 (Spring 2011) on Scripture

After a break in its publication, the first online edition of Foundations: An International Journal of Evangelical Theology, published by Affinity, is now freely available (here).

This edition contains some of the papers given at the Affinity Theological Studies Conference, held in February 2011, which was devoted to the doctrine and function of Scripture in the 21st century.

The contents are as follows:

Carl R. Trueman

Is the Princeton View of Scripture an Enlightenment Innovation?

Peter Naylor

Lost in the Old Testament? Literary Genres and Evangelical Hermeneutics

Greg Beale

The Right Doctrine, Wrong Texts: Can we follow the Apostles’ Doctrine but not their Hermeneutic?

Stephen Clark

The Use of the Bible in the Church

Hywel R. Jones

Preaching the Word in the Power of the Holy Spirit

Krish Kandiah on Navigating Life with the Bible

Krish Kandiah, Route 66: A Crash Course in Navigating Life with the Bible (Oxford: Monarch, 2011), 192pp., ISBN 9780857210180.

‘Route 66’ is the theme for this year’s Spring Harvest, and Krish Kandiah’s book of the same title is one of its main resources.

The book is mentioned in the latest Biblefresh newsletter, which also links to a pdf excerpt.

I was privileged to read a pre-publication manuscript of the book back in October last year and, if I’d got my act together in time, I would have been very happy to have written a blurb to join all the others recommending it. I’ll certainly be adding it to my future lists of recommended items on biblical genres and on introductory material on reading the Bible.

Krish has an enviable ability to use story and anecdote and self-deprecactory autobiographical snippets to excellent advantage in making points. And yet, he manages to cover the salient issues about each of the major biblical genres in a concise and engaging way, linking them with Bible studies and suggestions for small groups.

D.A. Carson on the Bible’s Literary Genres (2)

The London School of Theology 2011 Laing Lecture, given by D.A. Carson – on ‘The Bible’s Literary Genres: Reflections on What They Say About God’ – came in two main parts:

(1) What does the diversity of genres itself tell us about God?

(2) What do each of the genres individually say about God?

I’ve already posted on part 1 here, and summarise part 2 below. Once again, it’s worth recognising that I was scribbling notes furiously and so won’t necessarily have caught all the nuances Carson managed in the actual address.

The second main part of the lecture asked, What do each of the genres say about God? As with the first part, Carson developed a number of points:

1. Lessons from the occasional nature of New Testament letters and Acts.

When Paul writes Romans, he is not giving a complete summary of doctrine. He is responding to different pastoral needs. Particular occasions call forth particular responses – but there is no single document containing Paul’s entire theology. Through the letters, God addresses particular churches with particular needs. If we take any one of the letters and try to make it say all that needs to be said on a topic, we distort its teaching.

Carson cited the example of Paul refusing to circumcise Titus (Galatians 2), as (in that context) it would jeopardise the exclusive sufficiency of Jesus. And yet, he is happy to have Timothy circumcised (in Acts) in a different context where there is an issue of removing an unnecessary source of offence.

By way of application, Carson used the example of alcohol – and the different ways we might act in different situations – whether to avoid offence or to issue a challenge where a particular practice is jeopardising the exclusive sufficiency of Christ.

2. Lessons to be learned from the historical books.

God discloses himself in space-time history, and we have access to history through witnesses. According to Carson, if it could be proved that Gautama the Buddha never existed, it would not make any substantial difference to the buddhist system. Or, if it could be proved that Krishna never existed, nothing in Hinduism would be placed in jeopardy. In principle, in Islam, Allah could have given his final revelation to someone other than Muhammad, for Allah could give it to anyone he pleases. But it is quite different in Christianity where, if we pull Jesus out, there is nothing left. Jesus is not just a medium for the revelation of God, he is the revelation of God.

As Carson reminded us, in 1 Corinthians 15, for instance, certain entailments follow if Jesus did not rise from the dead. The truthfulness of faith’s object is necessary for faith. This is significant, Carson noted, because ‘faith’ on the street means either ‘religion’ (a particular faith) or ‘a personal subjective religious choice’, with no necessary connection to truth – which is not how Paul sees faith.

There are lessons from historical books which show how God works through history, attested by witnesses, which is why Christians are interested in historical issues.

3. Lessons from wisdom.

One of the most interesting features is the way wisdom thinks in polarities – lady wisdom or dame folly. Much of Jesus’ teaching also sets up simple polarities – two houses, two ways, etc., in this wisdom style.

Noting that wisdom literature can be abused from the pulpit, Carson used the example of Psalm 1, sometimes said to be a wisdom Psalm, drawing a polarity between the ‘righteous’ and the ‘wicked’. He noted the challenge of always living up to the criterion of, say, delighting in the law of the Lord and meditating on it day and night. Who of us always manages to do this, and never fails to do so? Constant preaching of simple polarities, Carson warned, will produce a congregation of legalists or hypocrites.

Narrative, however, allows more nuance. David might well be a man after God’s own heart, and yet he commits murder and adultery. In Judges, with its downward spiral, even the ‘good guys’ are disgusting by the end of the book.

When it comes to Job, Carson noted that some critics love the moral ambiguities expressed in the poetic portions of the book, but then assume the ending of the book (where everything is reinstated, and there is a happy ending) must have been written by a different hand. But it’s wisdom, Carson said, and so we should expect there to be polarities. Much of contemporary culture enjoys moral ambiguity for its own sake – and there is moral ambiguity, Carson noted – but it will be resolved by God in the end.

Carson ran out of time at this point, and so left off a further two sections on apocalyptic and typology.

•••

There was time afterwards for three questions.

• Someone asked whether Melchizedek could be understood to be an appearance of the pre-incarnate Christ. Carson responded that he thought nothing in the Old Testament account suggested that to be the case. Some of the description in Hebrews 7 might suggest it to be the case, but the writer here is simply exegeting the Genesis passage, noting Melchizedek’s lack of genealogy, etc. Moreover, the author of Hebrews says that Melchizedek is like the Son of God. He becomes a figure that prefigures someone else, and what’s picked up is that he is a priest-king – a prototype of the ultimate priest-king.

• Riffing (a tad cheekily, I think) on Carson’s lines about whether it would make any difference if Buddha or Krishna had not existed, someone asked about Genesis 1-2 and whether it would make any difference if Adam had not existed. Carson responded that this was a genre-identification question that he had not been addressing in the lecture, and that he would normally ask for four hours to deal with it. But he did express the opinion that if one denies a historical first couple and a space-time fall, it’s difficult to make sense of Paul. A historic Adam, he said, ‘is non-negotiable’.

• Someone asked about the negative side of Scripture’s diversity. Carson responded that he didn’t see it as a ‘negative’ so much as an ‘entailment’. We are finite, and God cannot download omniscience to us (it is one of his ‘incommunicable attributes’), which means that everything he says to us, and every way he communicates with us, will be, in some sense, necessarily limited. There would have been a ‘downside’ to any way he communicated. Moreover, Carson noted, there is a ‘hiddenness’ to God’s revelation. What was prophesied in the Old Testament is now fulfilled; but it is also said in some places that what was hidden in the past has now been revealed. Many truths are hidden in plain sight.

D.A. Carson on the Bible’s Literary Genres (1)

I was present at the London School of Theology 2011 Laing Lecture earlier this week. The speaker was D.A. Carson, and the title was: ‘The Bible’s Literary Genres: Reflections on What They Say About God’.

There was lots of familiar material for those who have heard or read Carson before, but it was good to have it reiterated. The lecture came in two main parts:

(1) What does the diversity of genres itself tell us about God?

(2) What do each of the genres individually say about God?

I’ll post separately on these two questions; obviously since these are my notes of his lecture, it’s possible that I’ll misrepresent something he said and/or fail to do it proper justice; but here goes...

On the first point, Carson began by reminding us of the sheer diversity of literary genres in Scripture – narrative, poetry, apocalyptic, letter, etc. – as well as genres within genres (beatitudes and parables within gospels, for instance) and genres within genres within genres (e.g., metaphors).

After this brief preamble, he took us through a number of points:

1. Although many true things can be said about God, God cannot be domesticated.

Systematic theology has its place, of course, but a biblical narrative can push the categories we use. We can line up biblical passages that speak of God’s sovereignty. He is sovereign, but is also a personal, talking, interactive God. Or we may speak of his aseity (his utter independence, his need of nothing), but then find other passages that strain the categories we use. Unlike Islam (described by Carson as ‘monotheism simplex’), Christianity (‘monotheism complex’) holds that God is love.

2. The diversity of Scripture’s literary forms attests different modes of inspiration.

Unlike, say, The Book of Mormon, or the Qur’an. 2 Timothy 3:16 says that Scripture is ‘God-breathed’; his word may be breathed out in different ways – but the result is always that Scripture is his word. In one case, Jeremiah dictates God’s word to Baruch. Which is different from the way God’s word comes to Daniel – through visions, which Daniel does’t even understand. Other forms are different again, such as David’s psalms, which are a reflection of his own experience, where he is not a ‘dictation machine’, like Baruch – and yet the resulting word is still God’s word. Luke engages in careful research before he writes. Etc.

3. Biblical treatments of interaction between God and humans are recorded not only in affirmations, commands, and propositions, but in stunning depictions.

There are affirmations and commands (Carson cited parts of the Sermon on the Mount and Philippians as examples), but biblical depictions push us in other ways:

• Genesis 15:19-20 – God and human interaction in one and the same event in the different intentions of Joseph’s brothers and God – the mysteries of providence.

• Isaiah 10:5-19 – God uses Assyria (as one would use a club) to bring judgment on his people, and then promises to punish the Assyrians.

• Acts 4:27-28 – The apostles recognise the evil that brought about the crucifixion of Jesus, and yet also describe it as ‘determined beforehand’.

4. The diversity of materials placed along an historical axis generates some of the most important trajectories in the Bible.

Carson used the example of Melchizedek here, in his three occurrences in Genesis 14, Psalm 110, and Hebrews 7. They are different literary genres, but when placed in historical sequence say some crucial things about Jesus.

• Genesis 14 – Melchizedek is described as a priest and king, which could never happen under the Mosaic covenant, and he receives a tithe from Abraham. Unlike other significant characters in Genesis, he has no genealogy, seemingly arriving out of nowhere and disappearing again.

• Psalm 110 – Between Genesis 14 and Psalm 110 comes the Mosaic covenant, where priests descend from Levi, and kings (after Saul) from Judah; the two roles are not found in the same person. David becomes king and rules from Jerusalem over a united kingdom. The kingship is established and the priesthood is established, but – as David writes in Psalm 110 – there was a priest-king (of Jerusalem? Salem?) a long time before, who was great enough for Abraham to pay him homage.

• Hebrews 7 – God’s promise of a priest-king only makes sense if the priesthood itself, in principle – including the covenant on which it was based – was becoming obsolete.

5. Sometimes there are interesting lessons to be learned within literary genres.

Ecclesiastes, Job, and Proverbs are all wisdom literature – but are very different.

What is a gospel, and why are there four of them? Carson pointed here to the titles of the gospels – The Gospel According to Matthew, etc. – such that there is one gospel with several witnesses. The gospel is the good news of what God was doing in his Son – which is why we announce it and preach it (what else does one do with news?).

I’ll post notes on Part 2 of the lecture anon.

Six of the Best 6: Books on Preaching Biblical Genres

This is the sixth in a series of ‘Six of the Best’ books in a particular area related to engaging with Scripture which are first posted on the website of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. This one looks at books which explore the significance of preaching the different literary types in the Bible.

‘Genre’ is crucial not just for our reading and understanding of Scripture, but for our appropriation of it for today – whether in personal reading or in teaching others. An earlier ‘Six of the Best’ (found here) was devoted to books on handling the different biblical genres in our reading of Scripture. As a follow-up, the resources listed here all explore the significance of the literary variety in Scripture for preaching, working on the assumption that a passage from 1 Chronicles will be preached differently from a passage in 1 Corinthians, that preachers best serve their congregations by making sure to do justice to the nature of the text itself (whether narrative or poetry or letter), rather than squeezing everything into the same sort of shape. Don’t be put off by the word ‘preaching’ in the titles; these books are helpful not just to ‘preachers’ but to all those who want to apply Scripture appropriately for today.

Jeffrey D. Arthurs, Preaching With Variety: How to Re-create the Dynamics of Biblical Genres (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2007).
Seeks to give attention to the rhetorical dynamics of the biblical literary types, with suggested implications for preaching, where the goal is to reproduce the intended effect of the text not just its ideas.

Charles H. Cosgrove and W. Dow Edgerton, In Other Words: Incarnational Translation for Preaching (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007).
Probably the most demanding of the books in this list. The key to their approach is in the phrase ‘incarnational translation’ in the subtitle; they seek to suggest how the text might have been presented – not just in terms of the sense of the passage, but also in terms of its form – if it had been written in the contemporary preacher’s own place and time.

Scott M. Gibson (ed.), Preaching the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2006).
A collection of essays by different contributors, covering between them the major genres of the Old Testament as well as some other topics (e.g., preaching the Old Testament in the light of its culture, preaching the Old Testament evangelistically).

Mike Graves, The Sermon as Symphony: Preaching the Literary Forms of the New Testament (Valley Forge: Judson, 1997).
Similar in concern to Arthurs’ book (above), but more narrowly focused on the New Testament.

Sidney Greidanus, The Modern Preacher and the Ancient Text: Interpreting and Preaching Biblical Literature (Leicester: IVP, 1988).
Explores the interpretation and preaching of four main biblical genres: Old Testament narratives, prophetic literature, gospels, and epistles.

Thomas G. Long, Preaching and the Literary Forms of the Bible (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1989).
A relatively short but significant treatment of five genres: Psalms, Proverbs, narrative, parables, and epistles.

Previous entries in this series:

• Books for beginners on interpreting the Bible
• Books on biblical themes
• Books on biblical worldview formation
• Books on the biblical story
• Books on the biblical genres

Gregory W. Parsons on Literary Features of Job

Gregory W. Parsons, ‘Literary Features of the Book of Job’, Bibliotheca Sacra 138, 551 (1981), 213-29.

Literary genre

Attempts to fit the book of Job into one overarching literary genre, according to Parsons, fail to do justice ‘to the complex nature of its literary fabric’ (213).

Three major categories have been suggested:

• Lawsuit – by Job against God in which the friends serve as witnesses.

• Lament – noting that personal lament begins (ch. 3) and ends (chs. 29-31) the dialogue.

• Controversy dialogue – similar to disputation or contest literature in the ancient Near East.

Parsons concludes that the author skillfully weaves these three types together ‘in order to serve the function of the book’ (215).

Literary devices

Parsons discusses two literary devices used by the writer of Job:

• Irony – both dramatic irony (in that the readers and the heavenly court share knowledge of which Job and his friends are unaware) and verbal irony (used in different ways throughout the cycle of speeches).

• Mythopoeic language – ‘perhaps more prominent in Job than in any other biblical book’ (218), with allusions borrowed from the ancient near Eastern cultural milieu to ‘stress the contrast between the uniquely sovereign Lord who operates by grace and the ancient Near Eastern gods who were bound by the dogma of retribution’ (220).

Six of the Best 5: Books on Biblical Genres

This is the fifth in a series of ‘Six of the Best’ books in a particular area related to engaging with Scripture which are first posted on the website of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. This one looks at books which explore the significance of the different literary types in the Bible.

There can be a tendency for us to read Scripture in only one gear – normally that which we use for Paul’s letters! But the Bible is a literary library which houses different literary types – law, narrative, poetry, wisdom, prophecy, gospel, letter, and vision (and those are just the main ones). The resources listed here discuss the significance of this for our handling of Scripture – learning to identify the different literary types, becoming acquainted with various ways of interpreting them, and making sure to change gear as we come across them.

Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for all its Worth, 3rd edn. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003).
A classic, now in its third edition, this is a brilliant ‘how to’ book which concentrates on defining the principles appropriate to interpreting and applying the different types of literature in the Bible. This would be the number one recommendation on this list, a ‘must’ read for any who want to explore this area in more detail. If you’re buying it, make sure to get the most recent edition.

Marshall D. Johnson, Making Sense of the Bible: Literary Type as an Approach to Understanding (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002).
Johnson focuses on eight different types of literature in the Bible, describing their main features, outlining what to expect from each one and how to approach them.

Tremper Longman III, Reading the Bible with Heart and Mind (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1997).
Written at a more accessible level than most of the others mentioned here, this is a helpful introductory book which (after some more general opening chapters) mostly focuses on interpreting and applying the different types of literature in Scripture.

Steven L. McKenzie, How to Read the Bible: History, Prophecy, Literature – Why Modern Readers Need to Know the Difference and What It Means for Faith Today (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).
After an opening chapter on Jonah (discussing the danger of what McKenzie sees as making the book into something that it is not), he focuses on history, prophecy, wisdom, apocalyptic, and letters. This is the most scholarly book on this list, and the most ‘critical’ in its treatment of Scripture. Although first published in hardback in 2005, Oxford University Press have recently published a cheaper paperback version.

Stephen Motyer, The Bible With Pleasure (Leicester: Crossway, 1997).
Previously published as Unlock the Bible (London: Scripture Union, 1990), this is similar in scope to Fee & Stuart’s How to Read the Bible for all Its Worth (above), but even more accessible in its approach. Excellent stuff, well worth reading and passing on to others.

D. Brent Sandy & Ronald L. Giese, Jr. (eds.), Cracking Old Testament Codes: A Guide to Interpreting the Literary Genres of the Old Testament (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1995).
After a few introductory chapters, this multi-author work focuses on literary forms of the Old Testament, with separate treatments of narrative, history, law, oracles of salvation, announcements of judgment, apocalyptic, lament, praise, proverb, non-proverbial wisdom, concluding with a chapter on the significance of literary forms for preachers and teachers of Scripture.

Previous entries in this series:

• Books for beginners on interpreting the Bible
• Books on biblical themes
• Books on biblical worldview formation
• Books on the biblical story

Kevin J. Vanhoozer on the Semantics of Biblical Literature

Kevin J. Vanhoozer, ‘The Semantics of Biblical Literature: Truth and Scripture’s Diverse Literary Forms’, in D.A. Carson and John D. Woodbridge (eds.), Hermeneutics, Authority and Canon (Leicester: IVP, 1986), 53-104.

This essay may well be the first major thing Vanhoozer published, and has been extremely influential on my own thinking since I first read it over twenty years ago. (Yikes!)

It’s a long and fairly sprawling essay containing a number of strands (which still remains a mark of his work, in my opinion)… but essentially Vanhoozer contends that ‘Evangelicals have not come to grips with certain problems pertaining to the diverse literary forms of Scripture’ (375, n. 15).

He picks up on James Barr’s accusation that evangelicals do violence to biblical interpretation in how they view the genre or function of propositions. So, he asks: ‘how does the diversity of Scripture’s literary forms affect the way we take biblical propositions and understand scriptural truth?’ (56).

He notes how Barr and David Kelsey (among others) have criticised evangelicals for making a literary category mistake in insisting that the main function of biblical sentences is to convey propositions (Barr), and for being chiefly concerned with ‘doctrines’ (philosophical propositions) abstracted from the text (Kelsey) (64-65).

Indeed, Vanhoozer agrees that while evangelicals have acknowledged the importance of Scripture’s diverse literary forms, in general it appears to be mere lip service, and the informative-propositional function of language carries the day (67-75).

He is thus concerned ‘to provide a model of biblical revelation that will preserve the substance of “propositional” revelation (i.e., the emphasis on verbal, cognitive communication) while at the same time allowing for greater appreciation of the “ordinary” language of Scripture and its diverse literary forms’ (67).

Against accusations from Barr and Kelsey, he maintains that ‘diverse literary forms and truth are by no means incompatible’ (68).

And in response to the accusation that evangelicals seldom study the humanities, and do not know how to read the Bible, Vanhoozer offers the example and work of C.S. Lewis (75-78). To summarise, for Lewis, ‘good reading calls for the response of the rationalist (who approaches the Bible as truth to be believed), as well as the “romantic” (who approaches the Bible as a reality to be received). Lewis the Christian reader has an appreciation for both the propositional, or rational, truth-bearing function and the nonpropositional, or imaginative, reality-bearing function of good literature’ (78).

Since Scripture contains a diversity of literary forms, when it comes to the debated notion of scriptural ‘inerrancy’, for example, the literary form of the text should be allowed to determine how far the text can be said to be ‘inerrant’ or not. ‘Inerrancy must be construed broadly enough to encompass the truth expressed in Scripture’s poetry, romances, proverbs, parables – as well as histories’ (79). Here he appeals to E.D. Hirsch on genre, and Paul Ricoeur on revelation (78-82). Furthermore, individual literary forms may be seen as language games (à la the later Wittgenstein) (82-85).

This leads him into a discussion of speech act theory, borrowing especially from the work of J.L. Austin and John Searle (85-92). He applies this not merely to sentences, but to literature, seeking ‘to propose (moving beyond Searle) that there is a correlation between a text’s genre, or literary form, and a text’s illocutionary point and force’ (91).

Just one of the upshots of this is that different types of texts determine the nature of truth being proposed. ‘The nature of the correspondence to reality (and thus the nature of truth) of an utterance is determined by its illocutionary aspect and literary form’ (101).

He concludes with various implications for exegesis and theology: (1) God reveals himself in the Bible through inscribed discourse acts; (2) exegetes should not make a priori decisions about biblical genres; (3) Scripture does many things with words and hence its authority is multi-faceted; (4) infallibility means that Scripture’s diverse illocutionary forces will invariably achieve their respective purposes; (5) theology is ‘ordinary literature’ analysis of an extraordinary book (93-104).

Graeme Goldsworthy on Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture

Graeme Goldsworthy, Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture: The Application of Biblical Theology to Expository Preaching (Leicester: IVP, 2000), xv + 272pp., ISBN 085110539X.

[The following post began life as a book review in Anvil, probably sometime in 2001.]

This work by Graeme Goldsworthy demonstrates the strategic place of biblical theology in Christian interpretation and appropriation of the Bible, and although it has the particular task of the preacher in mind, all concerned readers of Scripture will find it full of insight and relevance.

The bulk of the book is divided into two equal parts. Part 1 seeks to answer the sorts of questions that might be asked about biblical theology and preaching (e.g., What is the Bible? What is biblical theology? What is preaching?). Biblical theology has to do with the big picture of the Bible as it describes the unfolding of God’s purposes of redemption, culminating in Christ. Along with a high view of the Bible (as the one written word of the one God about the one way of salvation – and so as a book about Christ) goes a high view of preaching, which is rooted in God’s own proclamation to human beings, and exemplified in the prophets, Jesus, and the apostles. Jesus’ own teaching (e.g., John 5:39; Luke 24:27, 44-45) and the testimony of the early church to the gospel of Christ should shape our approach to Scripture.

Part 2 seeks to apply this biblical-theological method to the various biblical genres (narrative, law, wisdom, etc.). Each chapter here follows the same format: the setting of the literary type in the biblical-theological context, with some illustrative treatments of texts; general literary and historical considerations; reflections of a more practical nature on planning sermons on the genre under consideration. Among many other points deserving mention, Goldsworthy frequently expresses concern that preachers not moralise from the biblical text (whether with narrative, law, or the prophets) without regard for the framework of the gospel of grace.

All in all, then, there is much here to profit from, and any criticisms are of the ‘friendly’ kind from one who is in agreement with the broad agenda of the work. Goldsworthy repeats the formula from his earlier works (e.g., Gospel and Kingdom: A Christian Interpretation of the Old Testament [Exeter: Paternoster, 1981]) that the ‘essence of the kingdom is God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule’ (87). But the formula may pose problems. A little like the jewelry shop owner who sets the clocks in the window by the clock on the town hall over the road, not realising that the clock keeper sets the town hall clock by those in the shop window, it’s not always easy to see what’s establishing the agenda! It also means that some material can be overlooked. For instance, Goldsworthy arguably marginalises the exile, which in his treatment tends to be swallowed up in prophetic eschatology. One doesn’t have to be at all swayed by the current interest in the motif of exile in contemporary theology to acknowledge its significant place on the biblical landscape, not to mention the New Testament’s descriptions of believers as those in ‘exile’. The book of Esther, for instance, is set entirely in the Jewish dispersion, and provides a glimpse of the dangers God’s people might have to face in exile, a pertinent point (from a biblical-theological perspective) for contemporary Christians to acknowledge.

Furthermore, for all the emphasis on following the flow of redemption, one wonders whether Goldsworthy actually neglects the significance of salvation history in some cases. The first page of the New Testament is explicit in linking Ruth to Christ, and we need to read the book which bears her name in the wider biblical context; but to reduce it to a ‘missionary text’ (146) might put the cart before the horse. When one places Ruth within the flow of salvation history as a whole, how do we account for the seeming newness of what comes with Christ and the church? How does Ruth as a ‘missionary text’ relate to Jesus’ ministry to Israel, and then the sending out of the disciples to all nations in the power of the Spirit, and the portrayal in the early church of just how radical a notion this was to some, even after embracing the gospel for themselves? The concern is that we run the risk of making the Bible say things before it really says them, of flattening out salvation history.

Of course, all biblical texts are embraced by the gospel, and Goldsworthy does a great job reminding us that Wisdom and Psalms (for instance) are connected with Christ – because Jesus has been made our wisdom, and he is the king and the faithful Israelite who prays. Once again, however, those with a high view of Scripture will want to do justice to the celebration of sexuality in Song of Songs (say) as much as to Christ’s love for his church.

Finally and significantly, there’s very little wrestling with the theological significance of the Bible’s literary forms. These are made ‘the vehicle for the theological truth of biblical revelation’ (p. 135), which sadly gives the impression that the lorry of the literary form can be ignored once we get our hands on the theological freight it is carrying. Indeed, the nature of the various literary types is largely reduced to the salvation-historical contexts in which they occur, thus begging the question as to why the material is organised according to genre in the first place.

Such points aside, however, it would be difficult not to recommend this book. It’s surely difficult to imagine any person engaged in any form of Christian ministry who would not want to do proclaim the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ as it is declared in the pages of Scripture as a whole. Anyone interested in the place of biblical theology in the tasks of theology and ministry will benefit from this strong exhortation to pay attention to the shape of the Scriptures – Old and New, New and Old – with Christ at their centre.