Biblical Theology [Hardcover]

This book offers two things in particular: first, these are papers that have been commented on and re-worked in the context of a set of lively sessions from (International) SBL conferences from 2012 to 2014 (Amsterdam, St. Andrews, Vienna). Second, they offer an insight into the origins of the discipline as one which became conscious of itself in the early modern era and the turn to history and the analysis of texts, to offer something exegetical and synthetic. The fresh wind that the enterprise received in the latter part of the twentieth century is the focus of the second part of the volume, which describes the recent activity up to the present state of the question. The third part takes a step further to anticipate the way forward for the discipline in an era where canon --but also Scripture and theology --seem to be alien terms, and where other ideologies are advanced in the name of neutrality. Biblical Theology will aim to be true to the evidence of the text: it will not always see clearly, but it will rely on the best of biblical criticism and theological discernment to help it. That is the spirit with which this present volume is imbued. Questions of biblical theology are, at heart, questions about the understanding of the Bible in contemporary Christian thought and life. This collection of essays is a good guide to many of the key issues in contemporary debate about these questions. --Walter Moberly (University of Durham) We are in the debt of editors Walsh and Elliott for a volume that is historically informed (from Gabler on), engaged with all the relevant secondary literature of the past century, and thoughtfully undertaken. I have wondered if a contribution of B. S. Childs was simply his ability to keep an eye on biblical theology and interpretation at widest possible scholarly range, and to evaluate it on those comprehensive terms--the danger being that the discipline would otherwise break up into tribes of special interest or self-rlƒ7