Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments

Written by Brevard S. Childs Reviewed By John Goldingay

I brought the wrong expectations to this large volume, the most substantial of Professor Childs’s substantial body of scholarship. I expected it to give me the fruit of his personal study of Scripture, in the form of a series of chapters on different themes within biblical theology such as who the God of the Bible is (what it means to say that God is one, personal, active in the world, holy, just, loving, and so on). Near the beginning it indeed offers a fine definition of the task of biblical theology, which ‘attempts to hear the different voices in relation to the divine reality to which they point in such diverse ways’ so that they are heard in harmony; it moves dialogically ‘from the partial grasp of fragmentary reality found in both testaments to the full reality which the Christian church confesses to have found in Jesus Christ, in the combined witness of the two testaments’.

As in other works (as I should have anticipated), however, Professor Childs has questions of method more in focus than I allowed for in that expectation of mine. He begins with some survey of approaches to biblical theology—classic earlier ones (Irenaeus, Origen, Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin) as well as ‘current models’. Comment on the inadequacies of these leads to an exposition of his canonical alternative, which he defends from criticisms which he feels misunderstand it. The first 100 pages are thus standard Childs.

There follow 230 pages summarizing the ‘discrete witness’ of each testament. This is not so much theological discussion of their contents but extensive review of mainstream, mostly German theories about the development of traditions in each testament. It begins with a protestation regarding the suggestion that Professor Childs is not interested in history: ‘nothing could be further from the truth’, he says. The comment reflects the fact that his work in general is capable of giving the impression that a number of things might be further from the truth. James Barr once marvellously observed that what matters is not whether Jesus ‘canonically’ rose from the dead, but whether he actually did so. Professor Childs of course accepts that, and these chapters in the present book provide the evidence that he does take history seriously in doing theology. I was not clear precisely how they relate to his understanding of biblical theology, nor do they solve the problem they raise regarding the way traditio-historical study runs into the sand because of its uncertain conclusions. Further, with their stress on revelation in history they give the work rather a dated air; the scholars most often quoted are mid-century figures such as von Rad and Bultmann.

It is the second half of the book (comprising one chapter!) which offers his ‘theological reflection on the Christian Bible’, giving 30 pages or so each to topics such as God’s identity, God the creator, Christ the Lord, reconciliation, humanity, God’s rule, and ethics. As I have hinted, these also do not aim to interact closely with the biblical text itself, or to offer actual accounts of who God is or what it means to be human according to the biblical ‘witness’ as a whole. Each section begins with material on ‘the OT witness’ and ‘the NT witness’ regarding its subject, and again these give much space to summary of critical debate regarding their topics. In each section about six pages of ‘biblical theological reflection’ on the subject then follow, and a similar-scale ‘dogmatic theological reflection’ or some equivalent, and both continue to pay considerable attention to aspects of scholarly discussion. The material on anthropology, for instance, reflects on a debate between Barth and Bultmann and on the work of Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich, while the ‘biblical theological reflection’ on the kingdom of God is dominated by a discussion of the work of H.-J. Kraus.

It is thus again important to see what this book is and is not seeking to do. There are many very fruitful resources for biblical theology with which it is not concerned to interact, such as those offered by literary approaches to Scripture, by the substantial, largely American work on the relationship between the exodus and Davidic streams within the OT with its background in socio-critical study, by liberation theology, and by feminist biblical theology. The latter two are dismissed in a paragraph or two, the name Clines never appears in the book, and there is reference to only one article by Brueggemann (one in which he criticizes Childs methodologically). Professor Childs’s foci within the world of scholarship suggest he belongs not with post-modern figures, as has sometimes appeared, but with late-modern figures. And this book’s significance lies more in helping to clarify his place in the world of biblical study than in contributing directly to our interaction with Scripture itself.


John Goldingay

Fuller Theological Seminary