Old Testament Theology: Divine Call and Human Response

by John Kessler

Old Testament Theology provides a foundational tool for a theological reading of the Old Testament. In the book's central chapters, John Kessler delineates six differing representations of the divine-human relationship, with special emphasis on the kind of response each one evokes from the people of God. He traces these representations through the Old Testament, into the New Testament, and reflects on their significance for the values and character formation of the people of God today. Old Testament Theology combines elements of Old Testament history, exegesis, hermeneutics, and theology, and situates them within the social, cultural, and intellectual world of ancient Israel and Israelite religious institutions. The result is a comprehensive and readable introduction to Old Testament theology for students in seminaries and colleges.

Genres: Theology, Christian, Christianity, Biblical Studies, Old Testament

624 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 2013

Reviews

[Benjamin Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I had the privilege of having Kessler as a professor. This book does a great job helping readers to broadly understand and apply the Old Testament, more specifically, the relational responses permeating the text. However, it should be noted that this book is academic in nature, which at times can be cumbersome, yet, at the same time, it is written to be completely accessible to everyone. I also really appreciate how Kessler supports his ideas by directly adding scripture to the text, allowing the book to be read as a type of intellectual devotion as well. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

[Larissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

The content is helpful, but there is a distinct lack of conciseness that leads to ineffective, unneeded repetition and lack of clarity.

[Ethan Preston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kessler's book is an excellent introduction to Old Testament Theology. He helpfully identifies most of the major theological strands in the OT and explains them well. He sees the center of OT theology as the divine-human relationship. While this may be a bit unhelpfully broad, his discussions of each topic refer back to this thesis in helpful ways. He also relates much of OT theology back to its ANE context which is extremely helpful. The major flaw is that there is no consideration of redemptive history as it relates to OT theology. It is clear that the OT presents the history of Israel as it unfolded throughout history and that there was theological progression along with this history. Kessler merely considers major themes one sees throughout the canon, yet not necessarily placed in their redemptive-historical or canonical context. Thus, the main issue isn't what he is saying, but what he is not.

[Jackson Ford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply put, it’s dynamic look at God’s relational nature throughout all of Hebrew scripture. Kessler’s thematic approach to the Older Testament build bridges of understanding for many church goers that have a difficult time making sense of the OT, as well as offering a beautiful work for a scholarly audience. Kessler’s work is masterfully organized and the Theological Reflections at the end of the chapters are pedagogically excellent.