Christian Doctrine and the Old Testament

The Old Testament offers a rich palette of ideas, images, and narratives that help us unpack some of the more compact and opaque theological ideas of the New Testament. In conversation with both Christian and Jewish interpreters, prominent scholar Gary Anderson explores the exegetical background of key Christian doctrines. 

Through a deeper reading of our two-Testament Bible, he illustrates that Christian doctrines have an organic connection to biblical texts and that doctrine can clarify meanings in the text that are foreign to modern, Western readers. Anderson traces the development of doctrine through the history of interpretation, discussing controversial topics such as the fall of man, creation out of nothing, the treasury of merit, and the veneration of Mary along the way. He demonstrates that church doctrines are more clearly grounded in Scripture than modern biblical scholarship has often supposed and that the Bible can define and elaborate the content of these doctrines.

Hardcover. 240 pages.

Introduction

1. Apophatic Theology: The Transcendence of God and the Story of Nadab and Abihu

2. The Impassibility of God: Moses, Jonah, and the Theo-Drama of Intercessory Prayer

3. Creation: Creatio ex Nihilo and the Bible

4. Original Sin: The Fall of Humanity and the Golden Calf

5. Election: The Beloved Son in Genesis and the Gospels

6. Christology: The Incarnation and the Temple

7. Mariology: The Mother of God and the Temple

8. Christology: Tobit as Righteous Sufferer

9. The Treasury of Merits: Faith and Works in the Biblical Tradition

10. Purgatory: Sanctification in This Life and the Next

Epilogue

Indexes

PRAISE:

"Gary Anderson is a rare creature among biblical scholars. A savant of the historical-critical method and a serious student of theology, he is also at home in the history of biblical interpretation. All three skills are on display in Christian Doctrine and the Old Testament, and readers will delight in tracking Anderson's march through the Scriptures with high theological concepts in hand. There is a freshness and originality here that few biblical scholars can match."

- Robert Louis Wilken, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of the History of Christianity Emeritus, University of Virginia

"In this profound and engaging volume, one of the keenest theological minds of our time explores the Old Testament foundations of major Christian doctrines with great respect both for Judaism and for the original context of the Scriptures he discusses. The book is a rarity in scholarship and a major achievement from which anyone with an interest in Christian theology or the Old Testament can profit."

- Jon D. Levenson, Albert A. List Professor of Jewish Studies, Harvard University

"Modern biblical criticism has frequently sought to drive a wedge between historic Christian doctrine, especially Catholic doctrine, and the right reading of the Bible. Here Gary Anderson does more than show that rigorous critical exegesis and Christian doctrine can get along together, important as this is. His splendid achievement is to show, in one case after another, that a nuanced grasp of Christian doctrine actually enables us to read the Bible better than we otherwise could."

- Bruce D. Marshall, Lehman Professor of Christian Doctrine, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University

"Whether locating Mary in the Old Testament or seeing types of Christ in Genesis or Tobit, unlocking unexpected biblical dynamics of merit or uncovering unexpected hints of purgatory, this is radical work from a biblical scholar and theological master provocateur. For Anderson, the key to the biblical text lies in recognizing how it is that the Jewish Bible continues to function as Scripture for Christian readers ever since antiquity. Doctrine, he claims, has an uncanny way of unlocking exegesis. Allow yourself to be provoked!"

Markus Bockmuehl, Keble College, University of Oxford

"Part of Anderson's genius, along with a commanding prose style, is his generous capacity to mediate the best of a number of voices from different traditions. 'Sheol' is explained according to Levenson, Genesis 1:2 is made clear through Isaiah 60:19-20 according to Zakovitch, and ideas of figuration are set forth according to Seitz on Isaiah. But there is more - a calm, reasoned, yet strong voice that pursues an insistent theme: theology in the service of exegesis is the handmaiden to the apostolic foundations of the church's faith and, behind that, Israel's. As he himself puts it, 'Jesus cannot speak in persona Israel if there is no vox Israel to assume!' After reading these essays, one feels better informed, better encouraged, simply better."

Mark W. Elliott, professor of historical and biblical theology, School of Divinity, University of St. Andrews