During the pandemic quarantine of 2020, I renewed my enjoyment of reading. I found myself being transported to Mars in fantastic works of fiction by talented authors. I have been informed and enlightened by experts in various fields, stretching my understanding of historical and social issues. I have felt laughter and anger experiencing situations (both real and fictitious) as conveyed by the authors.

But rarely has a book made me feel…

…nothing.

I hate to say it, but that’s what I am walking away thinking and feeling after finishing What is Biblical Theology?

Let me break my thoughts down a bit further into something more helpful.

As the subtitle indicates, the different chapters are laid out in such a way as to over-arching themes, images, and types in the Biblical narrative. To that end, the author does well to present copious amounts of Biblical support to help the reader see the connections he is making.

My issue is, that I felt time and again as though several pages of this book could have been summarized with a chart or two. The reader, then, could visually see the connections between different parts of Scripture and the associated themes at hand. If an image is worth a thousand words, each chapter could have been a chart with one or two paragraphs of explanation.

Furthermore, with each section, the author started over and tried to make his point across the breadth of Scripture. I would have preferred he allow his book to follow the Biblical narrative. Yes, this is clearly a personal preference, however, I felt it could have made the book feel a bit less “jumpy.”

I believe there is absolutely an audience for a book like this, however, I feel as though the task will be akin to threading a needle. Someone who is new to Scripture would find some of the discussions and references pointing to the New and Old Testaments a bit challenging to follow. Yet someone who has studied Scripture quite a bit may find the lessons about symbolism and even typology to be ones referenced in a hundred previous sermons.

Perhaps the perfect audience involves those who have seen Scripture mostly from an academic angle of a book to be studied. This resource, then, could help such an individual open their eyes to a larger overarching narrative and beautiful symbolism that can be found throughout. To that person, I believe this resource could be immensely beneficial.

To a certain audience, a work like this would prove valuable to connect dots and see Scripture as more than just a source for theological argumentation. For me, it was an ok reminder of symbolism and patterns in the Biblical narrative, but nothing overtly remarkable.