This is A BIG READ in every sense. Not just because of its 600 plus pages, but also in terms of its ideas and analysis. Its scope is immense, aiming to take us through the whole biblical narrative in a particular way, namely to show how its unfolding story can help us make sense of modern life and culture.

What is Biblical Critical Theory?

Critical theory in general aims to make visible the deep structures of a society in order to expose and challenge them, and ultimately to initiate change. It involves not just accepting what a culture says about itself, but looks at what is really going on beneath the surface.

Because the Bible has its own ‘big story’ then it is possible to overlay that upon what is happening in our world and through this lens compare and contrast what we find in our social sphere with what God has revealed through his Word. This is obviously an incredibly complex task but one that this author is most capable of undertaking.

Scholarly credentials

Watkin is a scholar of modern European thought and languages, who displays an extraordinary breadth of learning and reading, which is apparent on every page of his book. He is associate professor in French studies at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and has an international reputation in the area of contemporary European thought, atheism, and the relationship between the Bible and philosophy.

As such, he writes for the academic world but he can also communicate in such a way that makes his main ideas accessible to the educated layperson and Christian leader, though it has to be admitted that at times it can be difficult to follow what he is saying. I certainly found myself getting rather lost in certain places.

his approach in tackling this scholarly theme via the chronological biblical story does make it easy for preachers and teachers to find what they may require for their sermons or other teaching.

But it was always worth persevering, if only in order to move on to the next chapter. So don’t be put off if this is your experience, too. However, his approach in tackling this scholarly theme via the chronological biblical story does make it easy for preachers and teachers to find what they may require for their sermons or other teaching.

Collection of insights

There have, of course, been other attempts to connect Christianity with cultural and social theory, but the author hopes that he has added something new to the sum of reflection so far, and to have “gathered together a collection of insights from the pages of Scripture and from two thousand years of Christian reflection in a somewhat fresh way, mapping them onto the Bible’s storyline from Genesis to Revelation and thereby lending them a fresh sense of overall coherence and relationship to each other” (p. 603).

Watkin's main tool in his process of engaging the Biblical narrative with current social attitudes and worldviews is one he calls ‘diagonalization’, a term which is not easy to describe in a few lines, but which the author explains at length in his introduction. He describes it as a method of “cutting across and rearranging false cultural dichotomies” (p.15).

Personally I was most impressed with the way he tacked the Trinity, creation, wisdom, and some of the later chapters on the last days.

But to be honest, what he is aiming for only becomes more understandable when used in specific contexts within later chapters. Essentially, it seems to me, that this is an approach which aims to connect the Biblical story, or its main themes of justice, love, mercy and truth, with the world around us which has distorted and splintered this rich biblical reality.

Which of his 28 chapters prove to be most useful will vary according to what each reader is wanting to get out of such studies, and perhaps where his or her thinking is already fairly well developed. Personally I was most impressed with the way he tacked the Trinity, creation, wisdom, and some of the later chapters on the last days.

Stimulating and satisfying

Overall, Watkin’s book is stimulating and satisfying, being both biblically and intellectually rewarding. Despite the difficulty of its thesis, the book is very well written with many excellent phrases, sentences, and paragraphs which build up with just the right amount of repetition and reinforcement while maintaining a forward movement at the right pace.

Overall, Watkin’s book is stimulating and satisfying, being both biblically and intellectually rewarding.

As expected in a scholarly work of this magnitude, the book is very well referenced and indexed, and contains a large bibliography. Each page is littered with several quotations from other works, some of which may be familiar but for the average reader most would not be.

Clearly with a book of this kind, it can only be thoroughly recommended to those with enough time to tackle its size and scope, though chapters can be read separately over a longer period. But the main hurdle will remain that of really wanting to think through what the author is offering us by way of ‘a fresh, engaging, and dynamic voice in the marketplace of ideas today’ and ‘to mine the unique treasures of the distinctive biblical storyline.’ (inside back cover).

‘Biblical Critical Theory’ (648pp) is published by Zondervan Academic, and is available from 10ofthose.com for £24.99 (inc p&p).