REVIEWS

Text and Truth: Redefining Biblical Theology, by Francis Watson. Grand Rapids / Edinburgh: Wm. B. Eerdmans / T. & T. Clark, 1997, pp. 334. $45.00.

Ben C. Ollenburger Elkhart, Indiana

In his first book, Text, Church and World (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), Francis Watson established himself as a leading participant in current debates in theology and hermeneutics. He did so by treating some of the most important issues in those debates in conjunction with the kind of biblical exegesis for which his book was an argument. He continues that pattern, and that argument, in the work under review, which aims to redefine biblical theology. By "biblical theology" Watson means "theological reflection on the Christian Bible" in its canonical unity, consisting in two Testaments. The Bible's division into two Testaments, Old and New, is of crucial theological importance to Watson. But he argues on theological grounds against the disciplinary isolation of the two parts of Christian scripture into independent fields of inquiry and against the isolation, or insulation, of biblical studies and systematic theology. Biblical theology, as Watson would redefine it, finds in Jesus Christ the constant center of scripture, the proper interpretation of which should be a fundamental concern of Christian theology. Hence, and like some of his predecessors, his proposals for redefining biblical theology are at the same time arguments about the character, even the reform, of Christian theology itself. Watson does not spend time locating his work in relation to biblical theology's history. Instead, he practices the kind of biblical theology he is commending: interpreting biblical texts theologically and addressing - obstacles - intellectual, ideological, and institutional obstacles in the way of such a practice. His book consists of eight essays that are substantially independent of each other; all of them display a remarkable breadth and depth. The first four address hermeneutical issues and subvert the isolation of biblical exegesis from systematic theology. Here Watson argues for the historiographical character of the gospels; for their capacity- rooted in the triune God, against Frank Kermode-to disclose the identity

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of Jesus; for some "unfashionable concepts," like the objective meaning of a text and authorial intention; and for the "textuality" of Christian faith, contrary to exemplars of "neo-Marcionism": Harnack, Schleiermacher, and Bultmann. The remaining essays deal with the Old Testament and mean to subvert the isolation of Old from New Testament exegesis. Here Watson commends Gerhard von Rad over Eichrodt and Childs for treating serious- ly and most adequately the relation of the Old Testament to the New; he conducts textually detailed studies of creation and the imago dei, interpret- ing both christologically while exposing James Barr's arguments about natural . theology to severe criticism; and he examines, critically but sympathetically, Justin Martyr's christological exegesis in his Dialogue with Trypho. Justin serves as an early example of classic Christian theology's " interpretation of "the Christian Old Testament as a whole." Watson could have used the subtitle of this third chapter, "In Defence of Some Unfashionable Concepts," as the title of his book. It runs, and reads, against the grain of most that is currently fashionable. The book will elicit criticism, especially as it regards the Old Testament, including from some who welcome Watson's project. I doubt that he will be daunted.