Stephen G. Dempster - Dominion and Dynasty: A Theology of the Hebrew Bible

New Studies in Biblical Theology is a series of monographs that address key issues in the discipline of biblical theology. Contributions to the series focus on one or more of three areas: 1. the nature and status of biblical theology, including its relations with other disciplines (e.g. historical theology, exegesis, systematic theology, historical criticism, narrative theology); 2. the articulation and exposition of the structure of thought of a particular biblical writer or corpus; and 3. the delineation of a biblical theme across all or part of the biblical corpora.

Above all, these monographs are creative attempts to help thinking Christians understand their Bibles better. The series aims simultaneously to instruct and to edify, to interact with the current literature, and to point the way ahead. In Gods universe, mind and heart should not be divorced: in this series we will try not to separate what God has joined together. While the notes interact with the best of the scholarly literature, the text is uncluttered with untransliterated Greek and Hebrew, and tries to avoid too much technical jargon. The volumes are written within the framework of confessional evangelicalism, but there is always an attempt at thoughtful engagement with the sweep of the relevant literature.

The Christian teacher or preacher who has attempted to give an overview of the Old Testament, whether in a local church or in a college or seminary setting, knows how difficult it is to organize the material in a way that is fair to each part, faithful to the historical setting and literary genre of each part, and yet a component of the Christian canon. Here Dr Stephen Dempster is a fresh and surefooted guide. He would be the first to acknowledge, of course, that one could organize the documents of the Hebrew canon a little differently. Nevertheless, his reading of the storyline of the Old Testament is fresh, provocative and helpful and doubtless will prove to be the stuff of many sermons and lectures. His closing chapter points to some of the links that bind the Old and the New Testaments together, an obviously urgent goal for the Christian preacher and teacher. For we hold that we should ultimately be striving for what the Germans call eine gesamtbiblische Theologie, a genuinely biblical theology, a whole-Bible theology (as opposed to a merely Old Testament or New Testament theology). In a time and setting in western culture when there are far more bitty and picky thinkers around than well-informed big-picture theologians, Dr Dempsters volume is an important corrective.

D. A. Carson
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School