Biblical Theology: Issues, Methods, and Themes

Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2007. Pp. viii + 328. Paper. $29.95. ISBN 0664229727. James D. G. Dunn Durham University Durham, United Kingdom This monograph, by James K. Mead, Associate Professor of Religion at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa, is intended to make biblical theology in its historical and methodological complexity accessible to students. It offers itself as a guide to them as they encounter the subject’s challenges and situate themselves within the ever-growing number of concepts and proposals. As an introduction to the subject, it succeeds in this objective well. Mead begins by offering the following working definition: “Biblical theology seeks to identify and understand the Bible’s theological message, that is, what the Bible says about God and God’s relation to all creation, especially to humankind” (2). He then goes on to outline the challenges involved in filling out this definition: (1) the challenge of the concepts (Can biblical theology cope with the diversity of themes in the Bible? What constitutes “the Bible”? Is the Bible only about “theology”?); (2) the challenge of determining which layer of meaning in the biblical texts should be the concern of biblical theology; and (3) the challenge of determining whether biblical theology should see itself only as a descriptive exercise, Mead’s own working definition implying “the validity of the search for normative applications” (9). [Full Review]