In this tour de force, a premier Old Testament scholar provides the reader with a grand overview of biblical theology: tracing the developments, critiquing the major contributions (e.g., Gese, Childs, Brueggemann), and providing his own provocative analysis, Barr reaches to the core of the philosophical and theological implications of the various constructions. In his usual bold manner, he examines the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic contexts of biblical theology and their implications for our reading of both testaments in the modern world. Some of the key issues Barr addresses are typologies for doing biblical theology and Old Testament theology, the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, the relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament, the history of religions versus theological approaches, and the Biblical Theology Movement.

Barr's exemplary volume articulates the criteria by which any future biblical theology must be gauged. It will be welcomed by scholars, students, clergy, and all who are concerned for how the biblical witness can inform, guide, and inspire religious readers today.