This is the kind of book that is like manna from heaven for students struggling to find some direction through the maze of contemporary Biblical studies. OT study has seen massive changes in recent years in the way it is approached by scholars, who have generally bought into the latest fads in postmodern philosophy with much greater enthusiasm than their NT colleagues. Almost everything that once seemed to be an ‘assured result’ has been questioned, and into the bargain the rules themselves have been changed. So books of a previous generation are unlikely to give students much help in how to engage with today’s questions.

This volume is the product of collaboration by some sixteen individuals, all of them acknowledged experts in their own particular field. However, it is not a collection of disconnected essays, as the editors have ensured a consistent treatment of the subject. It begins by looking at textual studies and ends with a chapter on the theology of the OT. In between there are chapters on archaeology, history writing, the monarchy, prophets, wisdom, and much more besides. The approach is the same in each chapter: an account of scholarly developments over the last thirty years or so (in Europe as well as the English-speaking world), together with some critical analysis of key theories, and evaluation of positive and negative lessons to be learned from it all.

In view of the enormous amount of information included here, it might seem ungrateful to complain about just one issue. But I have to admit to some surprise that there was not more specific discussion about the issues raised by what is briefly mentioned on page 106 as ‘ideological criticism’. One particular view seems to me to require significant treatment. This is the view, popularised by K.W. Whitelam in The Invention of Ancient Israel (1997) but adopted more widely, that much (if not all) early twentieth-century study of archeology and Israel’s early history was motivated not by scholarly objectivity, but by a political desire to support Zionist aspirations for the establishment of the state of Israel, to the disadvantage of the Palestinians. Those who accept this argument might well be ‘emperors with no clothes’—loudly proclaiming their own objectivity while denying the same integrity to others. But the underlying implication that the judgements of older scholars cannot be trusted (including such ‘greats’ as W.F. Albright) has a deliberately corrosive effect on academic integrity. Today’s students need to be know this and know how to take account of it. For if we are all just products of our own environment, and there is no such thing as ‘truth’ (which, of course, is what this is all about), then why should anybody bother with the opinions of anyone else at all?

The editors are aware of this dimension to the topic, and in their preface label some theories as ‘presuppositionally wrongheaded’ (10), which makes it all the more surprising—and regrettable—that there was not a separate chapter on this central issue of how our presuppositions affect what we think we know. But noting this omission is in no way to detract from the enormous value that this book will be to those who read it. In relation to what it contains, it can be recommended without reservation. And if important things are missing, that is an invitation for the editors and writers to produce some more.

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