The Old Testament for a Complex World

How the Bible's Dynamic Testimony Points to New Life for the Church

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Pub Date 15 Jun 2021 | Archive Date 15 Aug 2021

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Description

"This impressive analysis will resonate with any Christian interested in the evolution of biblical criticism."--Publishers Weekly

What if the Bible, which has come to us through a complex process, is just the resource we need to speak to the challenges of living as Christians in a complex world? In today's era of significant cultural upheaval, studying the Old Testament can seem impractical or irrelevant. This book reclaims the Old Testament as a vital resource for today's church, showing how critical study of these texts helps us understand the Bible as a dynamic testimony for our changing future.
"This impressive analysis will resonate with any Christian interested in the evolution of biblical criticism."--Publishers Weekly

What if the Bible, which has come to us through a complex process, is...

Advance Praise

“The problems that beset church and society are profound and ever more evident in the tattering of our daily lives. Yet one resource of enormous profundity sits right before us, largely unopened, unread. In this inspiring book, Cameron Howard unleashes the Old Testament’s power to address what ails us and to point us toward a more flourishing world for all.”—Jacqueline Lapsley, dean, vice president of academic affairs, and professor of Old Testament, Princeton Theological Seminary

“The Old Testament is at once one of the most interesting and most misunderstood bodies of literature in the world. The church, which ought to be among its most appreciative audiences, is instead often at a loss for what to say about it, and how to hear it in our own times. This book emerged from deep interactions between the church and scholarship. It offers the reader both new foundations and concrete ways forward to reintegrate this majority portion of the Bible back into the life of the church at a time when we most need it. And I can think of no better guide than Cameron B. R. Howard.”—Christopher B. Hays, D. Wilson Moore Professor of Old Testament and ANE Studies, Fuller Theological Seminary
“Cameron Howard describes interpretation as something akin to an atomic particle collision between reader, biblical text, and the energizing wind of the Spirit. The result of this impact? The possibility of ‘new molecules of interpretation, releasing energy as light and beauty.’ Howard then arranges just such a collision in this illuminating and beautifully written book, showing us, in the process, how the ‘iconically old’ Old Testament from bygone ‘Bible times’ nevertheless reflects a truly dynamic ethos. In three helpful case studies, we are shown how Scripture captures and canonizes ‘required innovation.’ The result of this book? Provocations of possibility and hope for the church—and a world—that finds itself in difficult days. Here is a volume that can change and help the church, those who belong to it, and those who serve it.”—Brent A. Strawn, professor of Old Testament and professor of law, Duke University
“Dr. Howard effectively connects the world of critical biblical scholarship to today’s Christian communities. She rightly rejects the diminished relevance of the Old Testament and instead contends that the church must reclaim the entirety of Scripture as a generative and faithful source for the thriving of God’s people. Readers will discover the ways that seemingly arcane topics such as the genre of apocalypse can inspire new approaches to church leadership.”—Roger S. Nam, professor of Hebrew Bible, Candler School of Theology, Emory University
“Cameron Howard presents a bold, new approach to a persistent, old challenge—the relevance and authority of the Old Testament to the life of faith. She grapples with the dynamic complexity of the Old Testament head-on and offers a convincing case that this complexity is itself a gift.”—Rolf Jacobson, professor of Old Testament and director of the MDivX Pilot Project, Luther Seminary

“The problems that beset church and society are profound and ever more evident in the tattering of our daily lives. Yet one resource of enormous profundity sits right before us, largely unopened...

Available Editions

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ISBN 9781540963727
PRICE $21.99 (USD)
PAGES 160

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Featured Reviews

Finally, a more accessible discussion of how to make contemporary sense of the Old Testament's many genres and histories! Seminarians, clergy, and biblical scholars haven't always been effective at arguing for a dynamic understanding of scripture that allows for ambiguity and nuanced interpretations. Howard does that clearly and well in this book.

In some streams of Christianity, we've all but ignored the riches of the Old Testament/Hebrew Scriptures, leaving lay people to make their own sense of the readings we hear every week. Dr. Cameron Howard's work would be a great reference for a study on how to read and be shaped by *all* of the Bible, including the Old Testament.

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This book makes studying the Old Testament relevant to the times we are living in now and offers a way to study it that can enrich our very modern lives. It gives us some important context as well as ideas about understanding The Bible as a whole.

This one took me a while to get through. I’d read a little bit here and there before bedtime. Some of it went over my head, if I’m honest, not because it’s difficult to understand, but it’s dense. Anytime we talk about the Old Testament, it’s not going to be a light and fun read, but it’s interesting, and I learned a lot. My favorite part was when Howard studies Daniel through the lens of the apocalypse as literature. I learned a lot about apocalypses throughout literature and more specifically in The Bible, and how it’s not a ending of all things, but a period of great change, and it helped me frame some Bible stories that I didn’t 100% get in the past.

It’s definitely worth adding to your Bible study if you want to spend some time in the Old Testament and go on a deeper dive than just surface level passage reading.

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