Matheny, the Associate Professor of Christian Scriptures at George W. Truett Theological Seminary, aims “to offer a new proposal for engaging in Old Testament theology that incorporates strengths of past proposals.” This she does through a survey of the concept of ḥesed, a Hebrew word variously rendered “love,” “faithfulness,” “mercy,” “kindness,” and “beauty,” as well as by compounds such as “loving loyalty,” in an endeavor to capture something of its breadth of meaning and potential.

Matheny provides the reader with a brief survey of previous approaches to developing an Old Testament theology which would be useful for any first-year theological student. She decries what she calls the “pidginization” of this discipline—its reduction to one central theme (Mitte) which seeks to draw everything in the Old Testament into it (p. 2). Themes such as covenant, kingdom of God, promise, and relationship have previously been called into service as the center for organizing Old Testament theology.

Drawing on the literary theory of Mikhail Bakhtin, Matheny proposes instead an approach based on the notion of a seed, or kernel (Kern), which grows outward, a methodology which “seeks to create imaginative space and open-endedness,” inviting the reader into the story and “unleashing potential, diversity, and hope” (p. 7).

Matheny engages with previous scholarship on ḥesed, which, because it cannot be reduced to a single notion in western languages such as English or German, has been the subject of several influential monographs and major articles over the past century. Does ḥesed entail the notion of obligation, or can it be a kindness freely bestowed? The lexicons have vacillated on this point. Matheny sees a deliberate ambiguity and open-endedness, so context must play a significant role in coming to understand something of this “relational term that embodies flourishing” (p. 9). She affirms that “the elasticity of ḥesed is revealed in its context and expanded by other terms used with it (such as ‘compassion,’ ‘mercy,’ ‘truth,’ ‘justice,’ ‘covenant,’ ‘faithfulness,’ ‘goodness,’ ‘grace,’ ‘righteousness’)” (p. 36). However, very limited exploration of these semantic associations is provided.

From each of the sections of the Hebrew canon Matheny considers sample passages that illustrate the range of uses of ḥesed. Ḥesed comes to expression through the actions of characters in stories, including minor characters, who do or do not exhibit ḥesed in the way they relate to each other. Because of the imago Dei, human ḥesed is a window on how God relates to his people and his world, for we are people-keepers and earth-keepers. Above all, “Ḥesed is a defining characteristic of Yhwh” (p. 43).

Matheny makes use of intertextuality, showing how passages are in conversation with each other, often by way of contrasting the behaviour of the characters, such as the different ways of treating brothers in the accounts of Cain, Esau, and Joseph. Matheny shows how writers may exploit the ambiguity inherent in the word. Esther’s ḥesed (Esth 2:9), for example, may refer simply to her beauty as perceived by the king, or perhaps to the favour she receives, but the reader is invited to see resonances of “blessing, life, and surprising salvation” (p. 115) when the book is read in a canonical context.

Matheny pays attention to the issue of canonical shaping. The placement of stories can heighten the significance of the actions of various characters, such as the contrast between the behaviour of Ruth and the characters of Judges 19–21, or the arrangement of the Psalter with its growing focus on God’s ḥesed as the basis for an ongoing relationship with his people beyond exile.

I was perplexed by aspects of the methodology. While it may be fine to include the stories of the Israelite midwives or Pharaoh’s daughter when the word is not found in these accounts, and I have little doubt that an Israelite could have been comfortable affirming these characters as exhibiting ḥesed, it is puzzling to see them being used in the mix of sample passages called upon to demonstrate the range of meaning of ḥesed.

One of the longstanding debates has been whether ḥesed is used of the human response to God. Matheny answers with a resounding yes, though the few passages that could be taken this way (e.g., Hos 6:6) are all capable of being read in terms of human–human interactions, and Matheny does not justify her confidence with solid exegesis.

In the end I was not clear how the metaphor of a seed (Kern) differed significantly from the notion of a center (Mitte). Both suggest something held to be a core concern, with other theological issues considered in relation to this theological locus. I would prefer the notion of multi-perspectivalism, where we can look at the Old Testament from different angles, each perspective adding to the richness of our understanding, though I am glad to see ḥesed being given a seat of honour at this table.

The style of writing is fresh and engaging, though I occasionally found the retelling of the biblical stories somewhat protracted for an academic tome. I also found off-putting the inconsistent transliteration of Hebrew (ḥesed but khakham; suv but shamar). The book is enhanced by the inclusion of a Scripture index and a subject index.

Matheny has done the church and academy a service in helping us focus on an important word and concept in the Old Testament, and project ourselves into the story and join the discussion of how together we may promote human flourishing.