Biblical Theology: The God of the Christian Scriptures

Imagine someone who has spent a lifetime listening deeply and attentively to the full range of Scripture’s testimony. Stepping back, they now describe what they have seen and heard. What emerges is a theological cathedral, laid out on the great vectors of Scripture and fitted with biblically sourced materials. This is what John Goldingay has done. Well known for his three-volume Old Testament Theology, he has now risen to the challenge of a biblical theology. While taking the New Testament as a portal into the biblical canon, he seeks to preserve the distinct voices of Israel’s Scriptures, accepting even its irregular and sinewed pieces as features rather than problems. Goldingay does not search out a thematic core or overarching unity, but allows Scripture’s diversity and tensions to remain as manifold witnesses to the ways of God. While many interpreters interrogate Scripture under the harsh lights of late-modern questions, Goldingay engages in a dialogue keen on letting Scripture speak to us in its own voice. Throughout he asks, “What understanding of God and the world and life emerges from these two testaments?” Goldingay’s Biblical Theology is a landmark achievement―hermeneutically dexterous, biblically expansive, and nourishing to mind, soul and proclamation.