Biblical Theology: A Canonical, Thematic, and Ethical Approach, by Andreas J. Köstenberger and Greg Goswell. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2023. 1,016 pages. $64.99.
Greg Goswell is Academic Dean and Old Testament lecturer at Christ College in Sydney, Australia and is a prolific author. Andreas J. Köstenberger has been a Research Professor of New Testament and Biblical Theology at Midwestern Baptist Theology Seminary since 2018. Before that, he was a Senior New Testament and Biblical Theology Professor at Southeastern Baptist Theology Seminary from 1996 to 2018. He has authored over sixty books and dozens of articles and essays.
This book comprises thirteen chapters in two parts devoted to the Old and New Testaments. An introductory chapter discusses the authors’ philosophy and methodology for biblical theology, which comes before the Old and New Testament sections. This chapter consists of a discussion of the nature/practice of biblical theology, the significance of canonical order to biblical theology, the relationship between biblical theology and ethics, and finally, an analogy describing biblical theology as a moderated family conversation.
The Old Testament section consists of four chapters. The first chapter discusses the rationale for following the canonical order of the Hebrew Bible. The following three chapters analyze the biblical theology of the law, prophets, and writings. Each book of the section is examined individually in the same threefold manner: identification of themes, identification of ethics, and how the book functions in the overall scriptural storyline. After each book is completed, the same three areas of analysis are applied to the entire section.
The New Testament section is organized in the same general manner with one notable and important addition. The first chapter of the section discusses the canonical order of the New Testament (similar to the first chapter of the Old Testament section). The second is a discussion of the relationship between the testaments. This chapter discusses the influence of the Old Testament on the structure of the New Testament, the overall relationship between the testaments, and the New Testament’s use of the Old Testament. This last part of the chapter is unique because the authors discuss different New Testament books that use the Old Testament. The remainder of the New Testament sections have an identical structure to the Old Testament section, with notable additions. Each corpus section has an introduction that places the section in its canonical context. In addition, the Pauline corpus section contains two further discussions. The first discussion concerns the missionary context of Paul’s letters, and the second discusses Paul’s lack of a systematized theology and the hermeneutical implications.
The final chapter serves as the book’s overall conclusion. It discusses unity/diversity in biblical theology, themes of the Bible, ethics from the Bible, the overall Biblical storyline, and a proposal for the future of biblical theology. This last section on the future of biblical theology is an excellent conclusion to the book since biblical theology means different things to different people. Any call for clarity in this area is welcome.
This book has four positive qualities. First, it is exceptionally well organized and clear despite being over 1,000 pages long. This is an exceptional accomplishment, making the book an excellent resource. Second, a person can quickly find the thematic elements in the various Bible books. This makes a primarily academic book accessible to the busy pastor in addition to scholars. The third positive quality is the introductory chapter. In this reviewer’s opinion, this chapter is worth the cost of the entire book. The chapter gives a clear overview of the landscape of biblical theology. It then argues for a specific methodology, historical/inductive/descriptive. The authors also clearly and convincingly argue for biblical theology being a bridge discipline between exegesis and systematic theology. They agree that biblical theology should start with thematic identification in the single books/groups of books, and only then will this data be fitted into broader thematic categories across authorial and temporal contexts. Finally, the authors attempt to demonstrate how to do biblical theology practically at the single corpus and conceptual levels. This reviewer is currently working on a dissertation concerning methods in biblical theology, and I can safely say this is exceptionally rare.
Despite these positives, there are a couple of negatives about this book. First, the price of the book is a bit high. Even though the $64.99 list price is not entirely out of line, it may be out of the range of many pastors and students unless they have a strong interest in biblical theology. The second negative is much more significant. While unique and admirable, the demonstration of how to do biblical theology failed and did not help with the lack of concrete biblical theological methodology. Despite these two negatives, this reviewer unequivocally recommends this book to anyone with even a passing interest in biblical theology.
