The discipline of Old Testament theology seeks to provide us with a picture of YHWH and his relationship to the world as described in the Old Testament. But within this discipline, there are many disagreements about the key issues and methodologies: Is the Old Testament unified in some way? Should the context of the theologian play a role in interpretation? Should Old Testament theology merely describe what ancient Israel believed, or should it offer guidance for the church today? What is the relationship between history and theology? All these considerations and more result in so many different kinds of Old Testament theologies (and so many publications), that it's difficult for students, pastors, and laity to productively study this already complex field. In Understanding Old Testament Theology, professors Brittany Kim and Charlie Trimm provide an overview of the contemporary approaches to Old Testament theology. In three main sections, they explore various approaches: Part I examines approaches that ground Old Testament theology in history. Part II surveys approaches that foreground Old Testament theme(s). Part III considers approaches that highlight different contexts for doing Old Testament theology. Each main chapter describes both common features of the approach and points of tension and then offers a test case illuminating how it has been applied to the book of Exodus. Through reading this book, you’ll hopefully come to see the Old Testament in a fresh light—as something that’s alive and active, continually drawing us into deeper encounters with the living God.

In this powerful book, Walter Brueggemann moves the discussion of Old Testament theology beyond the dominant models of previous generations. Brueggemann focuses on the metaphor and imagery of the courtroom trial in order to regard the theological substance of the Old Testament as a series of claims asserted for Yahweh, the God of Israel. This provides a context that attends to pluralism in every dimension of the interpretive process and suggests links to the plurality of voices of our time.

A senior scholar and teacher with four decades of classroom experience offers a concise, student-level theology of the entire Old Testament. W. H. Bellinger Jr. uses ancient Israel's confession of faith, the Psalms, to introduce the sweep of Old Testament theology: creation, covenant, and prophecy. He shows how these three theological dimensions each entail a portrayal of God and invite a human response to God. Bellinger also discusses how to appropriate Old Testament theology for contemporary life.

Gustav Friedrich Oehler was an Old Testament scholar and professor at Tübingen in Germany. At this time, he was among the foremost proponents of theological conservatism with regard to the Old Testament, rejecting the rationalism of Schleiermacher and the liberal school arising from his work. For Oehler, the Old Testament is an account of real history and divine revelation, rather than a product of mere human development. This two volume set, published after Oehler's death by his son in 1874, contains the contents of Oehler's three decades of lectures on his area of expertise. This early work of Biblical Theology explains the progressive revelation of divine truths from the first chapters of Genesis through the end of the Old Testament. It contains both a history of God's people, and an examination of the theological convictions of the Old Testament authors as moved by the Spirit.

Life is a primary theme in Scripture, expressed in the rich diversity of the various books, corpora and genres of Scripture. Much has been published on what Scripture teaches about life and death. To date, however, no comprehensive biblical theology in which the concept of life is traced throughout the different books and corpora of the Old and New Testament has been published. It is this lacuna that this book aims to fill, assuming that such an approach can provide a valuable contribution to the theological discourse on life and related concepts. The primary aim of this book is to give an indication of the different nuances of the concept of life in the various books and corpora of the Old and New Testament by providing the reader with a book-by-book overview of the concept of life in Scripture. The secondary aim is to give an indication of the overall use and function of the concept of life in the Old Testament, the New Testament, and Scripture as a whole. The latter is provided by using the findings of the book-by-book overview of the concept of life in Scripture to draw the lines together.

In this first volume in the Library of Biblical Theology series, Walter Brueggemann portrays the key components in Israel's encounter with God as recorded in the Hebrew Bible. Creation, election, Torah, the divine hand in history; these and other theological high points appear both in their original historical context, and their ongoing relevance for contemporary Jewish and Christian self-understanding.

This collection of essays is drawn from a series of previous collections to which the author has contributed that were designed to honor senior scholars in the discipline of Old Testament study. Each of these essays reflects a distinct intention depending on the nature of the original collection in which they appeared and the scholar who was being honored. Taken together, however, this collection amounts to an articulation of Brueggemann's distinctive approach to theological interpretation of the Old Testament. Already in his major volume on Old Testament theology, Brueggemann proposed a dynamism of tension, dispute, and contradiction as the text of ancient Israel sought to give voice to the mystery of God as a sustaining and disruptive agent in the life of the world. Over a long period of time, this collection reflects the author's growing clarity about the task of Old Testament theology. It further reflects on the nature of the biblical text and the way in which the God who inhabits the text runs beyond all of our attempts to define and explain. These essays reflect not so much on methodological issues, but take up the substantive questions that regularly occupied these ancient text-makers. .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }

Ladd's magisterial work on New Testament theology has well served scores of seminary students since 1974. Now this comprehensive, standard evangelical text has been carefully revised by Hagner to include an update of Ladd's survey of the history of the field of New Testament theology, an augmented bibliography, and an entirely new subject index.

The Old Testament is more than a religious history of the nation of Israel. It is more than a portrait gallery of heroes of the faith. It is even more than a theological and prophetic backdrop to the New Testament. Beyond these, the Old Testament is inspired revelation of the very nature, character, and works of God. As renowned Old Testament scholar Bruce Waltke writes in the preface of this book, the Old Testament’s every sentence is “fraught with theology, worthy of reflection.” This book is the result of decades of reflection informed by an extensive knowledge of the Hebrew language, the best of critical scholarship, a deep understanding of both the content and spirit of the Old Testament, and a thoroughly evangelical conviction. Taking a narrative, chronological approach to the text, Waltke employs rhetorical criticism to illuminate the theologies of the biblical narrators. Through careful study, he shows that the unifying theme of the Old Testament is the “breaking in of the kingdom of God.” This theme helps the reader better understand not only the Old Testament, but also the New Testament, the continuity of the entire Bible, and ultimately, God himself.

This republication of a classic work contains a new introduction by Walter Brueggemann that places Gerhard von Rad's work within the context of German theology, Old Testament theology, and the history of interpretation of the Old Testament. In Old Testament Theology, von Rad applies the most advanced results of form criticism to develop a new understanding of the Bible. His original approach is now available once again in English. The Old Testament Library provides fresh and authoritative treatments of important aspects of Old Testament study through commentaries and general surveys. The contributors are scholars of international standing.