and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requi... more and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.
Old Testament Ethics for the People of God By Christopher J. H. Wright Downers Grove, IL: Interva... more Old Testament Ethics for the People of God By Christopher J. H. Wright Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press 2004, 520 pp., $30.00 Reviewed by Corey J. Widmer Even from the genesis of the New Testament church, the subject of how the believing community is called to read, interpret, and appropriate the complex array of Old Testament narratives and legal codes into its ethical life has been plagued with confusion and controversy. Among the spate of books that has been produced in the last twenty years on Old Testament ethics, Chris Wright has added another. He is more than qualified to do so, having been one of the first authors to address this subject after a long dearth of scholarly attention with his 1983 publication Living as the People of God. This new book is a major revision and overhaul of his first, incorporating much of his extensive work in this area over the last two decades. Resisting the atomization that works in this field often succumb to, Wright’s book is neither exclusively a project of historical socioscientific criticism, nor is it a facile extraction of timeless principles that retain contemporary relevance. Rather, it is a carefully considered attempt to “put ourselves in Israel’s position and understand how Israel perceived and experienced their relationship with God and how that experience affected their ethical ideals and practical living as a community” (17). The structure of his approach is a triangulated examination of the theological, economic, and social dimensions of the Old Testament, which relate respectively to God, Israel, and the Land. After laying out this foundation in Part I, he implements a three-dimensional methodology for considering the ethical relevance of the Old Testament, what Wright terms the “paradigmatic, typological, and eschatological” aspects (all incorporated into a fascinating diagram on page 196). The bulk of Part I1 is his appropriation of these methods to deal with a wide breadth ofcomplex ethical subjects, ranging from ecology to poverty, from politics to law. Part I11 is a helpful three-chapter primer dealing with the history of and current debate surrounding Old Testament interpretation, a welcome survey for students of hermeneutics and OT theology. The result is a book that is remarkably balanced, sensitive, and thorough. Wright is deeply committed to “the organic unity and continuity of God’s work of revelation and redemption in history” (3 lS) , but he is equally devoted to grappling with the complex particularities of the text, and is not willing to yield to the evangelical tendency to flatten the uneven texture of the canon (although critics will assuredly accuse him of applying too “tidy” of a system). He resists the bifurcation rampant in the academy between theology and biblical studies, even willing to speak of the missional activity of the Trinity (214), but he carries out the sort of intricate socio-historical analysis that biblical scholarship necessitates. While firm and transparent with his hermeneutical presuppositions, he deals extensively and irenically with the broad spectrum of current Old Testament scholarship. And while embedded in the ethical life of Israel, Wright’s missiological interests keep him ever turning to consider how “what God did in, for, and through Israel was ultimately intended to be for the benefit of the nations” (3 19). Perhaps the most unfortunate quality of this book is its formidable length, which may dissuade an inquiring student or layperson to pick i t up. Thankfully, it is supplied with helpful subject, author, and scripture indexes, an asset that helps make this book a fine resource not only for the educator, but also for the pastor who is attempting to navigate the complexities of the Old Testament for the edification of his or her congregation.
and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requi... more and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.
Old Testament Ethics for the People of God By Christopher J. H. Wright Downers Grove, IL: Interva... more Old Testament Ethics for the People of God By Christopher J. H. Wright Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press 2004, 520 pp., $30.00 Reviewed by Corey J. Widmer Even from the genesis of the New Testament church, the subject of how the believing community is called to read, interpret, and appropriate the complex array of Old Testament narratives and legal codes into its ethical life has been plagued with confusion and controversy. Among the spate of books that has been produced in the last twenty years on Old Testament ethics, Chris Wright has added another. He is more than qualified to do so, having been one of the first authors to address this subject after a long dearth of scholarly attention with his 1983 publication Living as the People of God. This new book is a major revision and overhaul of his first, incorporating much of his extensive work in this area over the last two decades. Resisting the atomization that works in this field often succumb to, Wright’s book is neither exclusively a project of historical socioscientific criticism, nor is it a facile extraction of timeless principles that retain contemporary relevance. Rather, it is a carefully considered attempt to “put ourselves in Israel’s position and understand how Israel perceived and experienced their relationship with God and how that experience affected their ethical ideals and practical living as a community” (17). The structure of his approach is a triangulated examination of the theological, economic, and social dimensions of the Old Testament, which relate respectively to God, Israel, and the Land. After laying out this foundation in Part I, he implements a three-dimensional methodology for considering the ethical relevance of the Old Testament, what Wright terms the “paradigmatic, typological, and eschatological” aspects (all incorporated into a fascinating diagram on page 196). The bulk of Part I1 is his appropriation of these methods to deal with a wide breadth ofcomplex ethical subjects, ranging from ecology to poverty, from politics to law. Part I11 is a helpful three-chapter primer dealing with the history of and current debate surrounding Old Testament interpretation, a welcome survey for students of hermeneutics and OT theology. The result is a book that is remarkably balanced, sensitive, and thorough. Wright is deeply committed to “the organic unity and continuity of God’s work of revelation and redemption in history” (3 lS) , but he is equally devoted to grappling with the complex particularities of the text, and is not willing to yield to the evangelical tendency to flatten the uneven texture of the canon (although critics will assuredly accuse him of applying too “tidy” of a system). He resists the bifurcation rampant in the academy between theology and biblical studies, even willing to speak of the missional activity of the Trinity (214), but he carries out the sort of intricate socio-historical analysis that biblical scholarship necessitates. While firm and transparent with his hermeneutical presuppositions, he deals extensively and irenically with the broad spectrum of current Old Testament scholarship. And while embedded in the ethical life of Israel, Wright’s missiological interests keep him ever turning to consider how “what God did in, for, and through Israel was ultimately intended to be for the benefit of the nations” (3 19). Perhaps the most unfortunate quality of this book is its formidable length, which may dissuade an inquiring student or layperson to pick i t up. Thankfully, it is supplied with helpful subject, author, and scripture indexes, an asset that helps make this book a fine resource not only for the educator, but also for the pastor who is attempting to navigate the complexities of the Old Testament for the edification of his or her congregation.
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