Introduction to Old Testament Theology: A Canonical Approach
Sailhamer's introduction is an explicitly conservative evangelical argument for a canonical, text-centered approach to the theology of the Old Testament. It is a particularly useful introduction (even for readers who are not conservative or evangelical) because of the care and evenhandedness with which the author describes alternative strategies of interpretation and makes his own choices explicit. The book becomes a kind of flowchart, mapping Sailhamer's choices--of text over event, canon over criticism, confession over description, and diachronic over synchronic interpretation--but also attending with care to alternatives at each step along the way. One could argue that the choices are not so neatly binary as the flowchart implies, but that would be quibbling. On the whole, this is an excellent introductory text.Steve Schroeder--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.