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

*With a foreword from Tim Keller*

A bold vision for Christians who want to engage the world in a way that is biblically faithful and culturally sensitive.

In Biblical Critical Theory, Christopher Watkin shows how the Bible and its unfolding story help us make sense of modern life and culture.

Critical theories exist to critique what we think we know about reality and the social, political, and cultural structures in which we live. In doing so, they make visible the values and beliefs of a culture in order to scrutinize and change them.

Biblical Critical Theory exposes and evaluates the often-hidden assumptions and concepts that shape late-modern society, examining them through the lens of the biblical story running from Genesis to Revelation, and asking urgent questions like:

• How does the Bible's storyline help us understand our society, our culture, and ourselves?
• How do specific doctrines help us engage thoughtfully in the philosophical, political, and social questions of our day?
• How can we analyze and critique culture and its alternative critical theories through Scripture?

Informed by the biblical-theological structure of Saint Augustine's magisterial work The City of God (and with extensive diagrams and practical tools), Biblical Critical Theory shows how the patterns of the Bible's storyline can provide incisive, fresh, and nuanced ways of intervening in today's debates on everything from science, the arts, and politics to dignity, multiculturalism, and equality. You'll learn the moves to make and the tools to use in analyzing and engaging with all sorts of cultural artifacts and events in a way that is both biblically faithful and culturally relevant.

It is not enough for Christians to explain the Bible to the culture or cultures in which we live. We must also explain the culture in which we live within the framework and categories of the Bible, revealing how the whole of the Bible sheds light on the whole of life.

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.

ISBN-13: 9780310128724

Media Type: Hardcover

Publisher: Zondervan Academic

Publication Date: 11-08-2022

Pages: 672

Product Dimensions: 6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.75(d)

Christopher Watkin (Ph D, University of Cambridge) is senior lecturer in French studies at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. He is 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.

Table of Contents

Foreword Tim Keller xv

Preface xvii

Acknowledgments xxiii

Introduction 1

1 Trinity 33

2 Creation 53

3 Humanity 83

4 Sin and Society 107

5 Sin and Autonomy 133

6 Sin, Anthropology, and Asymmetry 159

7 From Lamech to Noah 179

8 Babel 207

9 Abraham and Promise 223

10 Abraham and Covenant 241

11 Moses, the Exodus, and the Torah 259

12 Prophecy and Power 287

13 Prophecy and Cultural Critique 305

14 Wisdom Literature 319

15 Incarnation, Space, and Time 341

16 Incarnation, Materiality, and Personality 357

17 The Ministry of Jesus, Love of God, and Love of Neighbor 371

18 The Cross, Subversion, and Grace 401

19 The Cross, Asymmetry, and Paradox 419

20 The Resurrection, Transformation, and Power 435

21 The Last Days, Church, and Society 459

22 The Last Days and Parallax Living 477

23 The Last Days and Giving to Caesar What Is Caesar's 495

24 The Last Days and Modernity 509

25 Eschatology and Apocalyptic 529

26 Eschatology and Time 547

27 Eschatology and Identity 565

28 Eschatology and Culture 581

Conclusion 601

Bibliography 607

Subject Index 637

Scripture Index 640

Proper-Name Index 645