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

by Christopher Watkin, Timothy Keller (Foreword by)

Overview

*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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780310128724
Publisher:	Zondervan Academic
Publication date:	11/08/2022
Pages:	672
Sales rank:	163,346
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.75(d)

About the Author

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

Editorial Reviews

10/17/2022

This ambitious effort by Watkin (Thinking Through Creation), a senior lecturer in French studies at Monash University, Australia, positions the Bible as a cultural critique. He posits that Christianity’s capacity to produce “recognizable and repeatable patterns and rhythms of behavior, of thought, of language” means that the faith can be used as a tool of social analysis. The author suggests that God speaking the world into existence renders moot discussions about whether language produces or merely describes reality because while language can shape reality, only God’s language has such power. Tackling posthumanist thinkers’ concern with augmenting the human body, Watkin posits that the Bible “endorses the use of technologies and practices... to improve human life,” but adds that humans should only undertake major changes if they glorify God. Jesus, the author asserts, provides an alternative to Marxist and Hegelian conceptions of authority because his status as “sovereign servant” suggests that authority can come from deference to a higher power. Watkin’s discourses with such thinkers as Nietzsche, Kant, and Derrida on the incarnation, apologetics, prophecy, and eschatology impress with their depth and complexity, though readers unfamiliar with these secular critical theorists may struggle to follow along. Still, Watkin largely pulls off this daring feat of scholarship. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

'A fresh way of seeing the world, life, culture, and the Bible . . . I highly recommend this book.'

Oklahoma Baptist University ALAN NOBLE

'[Chris Watkin] maps a path out of some of the most fundamental impasses of our time . . . Urgent and weighty, Biblical Critical Theory is . . . simply, a tremendously exciting read.'

Centre for Public Christianity NATASHA MOORE

'This book is a must-read for all serious thinkers.'

City Bible Forum SAM CHAN

'This is the best yet most accessible exploration of the intersection between Christianity, culture, and philosophy I've read in recent years.'

NATHANIEL GRAY SUTANTO

'This is truly the book I have long wanted to read, and I believe it deserves to become a standard text for all Christian leaders, teachers, evangelists, and any serious-minded believer.'

Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship RICHARD CUNNINGHAM

' . . . An ambitious, comprehensive, and thrilling work of Christian apologetics . . . The most significant work of its kind to appear in a decade.'

RORY SHINER

'A wonderful book bringing the Scriptures—every part of them—into a deep and illuminating conversation with the concerns of culture.'

Speak Life GLEN SCRIVENER

'A brilliant and unique book . . . It is the most biblical, up-to-date, and comprehensive analysis of contemporary Western culture that I know of.'

Center for Public Christianity JOSHUA CHATRAW

'Every careful reader will be rewarded from repeated immersions in this profound and potentially transformative work.'

American Bar Foundation TERENCE HALLIDAY

'An important update of Augustine's City of God, a proposal for making biblical sense of what is happening in contemporary culture.'

Trinity Evangelical Divinity School KEVIN J. VANHOOZER

'An effervescently brilliant book, that rare volume that excels both in biblical and cultural exegesis.'

Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology BRUCE RILEY ASHFORD

'This book is a feast. Chris Watkin accomplishes what few have.'

WILLIAM EDGAR

'A seminal text for us . . . A foundation and frame for years to come. Absolutely essential reading'

Crosslands Forum DAN STRANGE

'Christopher Watkin's expert, timely compendium of Christian Scripture's subversive engagement of dominating themes of our modern age brings welcome healing to our world.'

Geneva College ESTHER LIGHTCAP MEEK

'Incisive, accessible, and astonishing in scope . . . '

University of South Florida DOLORES G. MORRIS

'This is a magnificent achievement. It is a must-read . . . Here is a total defence and commendation of Christianity like no other. Buy it. Read it. Ponder it. Pass it on.'

author and historian JOHN DICKSON

'A book that I have been eagerly anticipating for years. ... My prayers are that this book will bear much intellectual and spiritual fruit in many lives over the decades ahead.'

founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in TIMOTHY KELLER

'Biblical Critical Theory doesn't just give us answers; it helps us to come up with better questions . . . An innovative and immensely fruitful paradigm.'

Westminster Seminary California MICHAEL HORTON