Canon and Theology: Overtures to an Old Testament Theology

Overtures to Biblical Theology

by Rolf Rendtorff, Margaret Kohl (Editor), Margeret Kohl (Translator)

Rendtorff's approach involves an intensive interchange with international scholarship, including Jewish biblical studies, and emphasis on the question of the canon. Important themes of Old Testament theology are developed, among them revelation and history, creation and salvation history, covenant, and paradigms of exegesis.

235 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1993

Reviews

[Mark Rosekelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a nice little collection of essays. It is written by a student of the more famous Van Rad but Rendtorff is a notable German Old Testament Scholar in his own right. In many ways this book is outdated as most contemporary biblical scholarship has an appreciation for canon-critical analysis. On the other hand, his essay on the interrelation of the separate parts of Isaiah was very enjoyable to read and to contemplate for an hour. I also think his understanding of over 'atomization' of the text (i.e missing the forest in the trees) is an important criticism and one I would still use today in my criticism of dispensationalism, premilenialsm and in many ways calvinism.

Most will not enjoy this book. It was not revolutionary to me but had several bright spots in the weeds of German Old Testament Scholarship circa 1950-1990s.

[Samuel Bierig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not very good.

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absolutely delightful book. As a collection of essays Rendtorff examines a canonical approach to Old Testament scholarship while keeping a keen eye on the realization that the Christian Old Testament is also the Hebrew Bible and thus open to a whole other arena of legitimate interpretation. In particular his treatment of methodology as well as creation and covenant are especially facinating. Most outstanding is his discussion of the Noahic covenant and it's parallelism with the creation account of Genesis 1.



As a caveat, this book includes a great deal of Hebrew. While Rendtorff takes care to translate many of the necessary terms, a beginning knowledge of Hebrew vocabulary is helpful, although not ultimately necessary.