Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture

by Christopher Watkin

Publisher:

Zondervan

, 2022

Overview

It is not enough for Christians to explain the Bible to the culture in which we live. We must also explain the culture in which we live within the framework and categories of the Bible. If we are to meet this challenge, two things are necessary: we must develop a deep grasp of the shape of the biblical story and of how the Bible understands the world, humanity and God, and we must develop a penetrating and nuanced appreciation of the ideas and stories that shape our culture.

Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture does just this, setting out a fresh vision for biblical cultural engagement in which faithfulness to Scripture and sensitivity to culture walk hand in hand. This book exposes and evaluates the often-hidden assumptions and concepts that shape our late-modern society, and examines them through the lens of the biblical story running from Genesis to Revelation. With the help of extensive diagrams and practical tools, Biblical Critical Theory shows the reader how the signature patterns of the Bible’s storyline can provide incisive, fresh, and nuanced ways of intervening into today’s debates on everything from science, the arts and politics to dignity, multiculturalism and equality, showing Christians the moves to make and the tools to use in analyzing and engaging with all sorts of cultural artefacts and events.

This is a book for everyone who wants to bring together a white-hot commitment to unpopular scriptural truths with a positive, robust, constructive, and winsome vision for life and society. If Christians want to speak with a fresh, engaging, and dynamic voice in the marketplace of ideas today, we need to mine the unique treasures of the distinctive biblical storyline.

Key Features

• Examines through the lens of the biblical story running from Genesis to Revelation
• Exposes and evaluates the often-hidden assumptions and concepts that shape the late-modern society
• Shows the reader how the signature patterns of the Bible’s storyline can provide incisive, fresh, and nuanced ways of intervening into today’s debates

Contents

• Introduction
• 1 Trinity
• 2 Creation
• 3 Humanity
• 4 Sin and Society
• 5 Sin and Autonomy
• 6 Sin, Anthropology, and Asymmetry
• 7 From Lamech to Noah
• 8 Babel
• 9 Abraham and Promise
• 10 Abraham and Covenant
• 11 Moses, the Exodus, and the Torah
• 12 Prophecy and Power
• 13 Prophecy and Cultural Critique
• 14 Wisdom Literature
• 15 Incarnation, Space, and Time
• 16 Incarnation, Materiality, and Personality
• 17 The Ministry of Jesus, Love of God, and Love of Neighbor
• 18 The Cross, Subversion, and Grace
• 19 The Cross, Asymmetry, and Paradox
• 20 The Resurrection, Transformation, and Power
• 21 The Last Days, Church, and Society
• 22 The Last Days and Parallax Living
• 23 The Last Days and Giving to Caesar What Is Caesar's
• 24 The Last Days and Modernity
• 25 Eschatology and Apocalyptic
• 26 Eschatology and Time
• 27 Eschatology and Identity
• 28 Eschatology and Culture
• Conclusion

Endorsements

A book that I have been eagerly anticipating for years…

—Timothy Keller, Redeemer Presbyterian Church

Biblical Critical Theory is an important update of Augustine’s City of God, a proposal for making biblical sense of what is happening in contemporary culture.

—Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Biblical Critical Theory doesn’t just give us answers; it helps us to come up with better questions…. An innovative and immensely fruitful paradigm.

—Michael Horton, Westminster Seminary California

One of the best books I’ve ever read.

—Collin Hansen, Vice President for Content and Editor-in-Chief of The Gospel Coalition

Product Details

• Title: Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture
• Author: Christopher Watkin
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Print Publication Date: 2022
• Logos Release Date: 2022
• Pages: 648
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• Subjects: Bible › Evidences, authority, etc; Christianity and culture; Apologetics; Theology; Bible › Introductions
• ISBNs: 9780310128748, 9780310128731, 0310128722, 0310128730, 9780310128724, 0310128749
• Resource ID: LLS:BBLCLCRTCLLCLTR
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2023-02-17T21:17:18Z

About Christopher Watkin

Christopher Watkin (PhD, University of Cambridge) is senior lecturer in French studies at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. He a scholar with an international reputation in the area of modern and contemporary European thought, atheism, and the relationship between the Bible and philosophy. His published work runs the spectrum from academic monographs on contemporary philosophy to books written for general readers, both Christian and secular, and include Difficult Atheism, From Plato to Postmodernism, Great Thinkers: Jacques Derrida, and others.