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Nomadic Text: A Theory of Biblical Reception History

In Brennan Breed, HB/OT, Indiana University Press, Kengo Akiyama, Reception history on July 5, 2016 at 10:24 pm

9780253012524_med

2016.07.12 | Brennan W. Breed. Nomadic Text: A Theory of Biblical Reception History. Indiana Series in Biblical Literature. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2014. pp.xii + 299. ISBN: 978-0-253-01252-4.

Review by Kengo Akiyama

Many thanks to Indiana University Press for providing a review copy.

This book, a winner of the Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise 2016, is based on Breed’s doctoral dissertation, which was written under the supervision of Carol Newsom at Emory University. The book consists of introduction, seven main chapters, and conclusion, followed by notes, bibliography, and index.

The introductory chapter (‘Introduction: The Constitutive Divide of Reception History’) frames the discussion by problematising ‘borderlines’, a concept that all critical studies implicitly or explicitly employ. Read the rest of this entry »


Ethics in Ancient Israel

In Ancient Israel, Ethics, HB/OT, John BARTON, Kengo Akiyama, Oxford University Press on December 6, 2015 at 11:00 pm

9780199660438

2015.12.22 | John Barton. Ethics in Ancient Israel. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. pp.xii + 317. ISBN: 978-0-19-966043-8

Review by Kengo Akiyama.

Many thanks to OUP for providing a review copy.

In this book, John Barton argues that sustained reflection on ethics already existed in ancient Israel well before Socrates who is usually credited as the first to reflect on morality from a philosophical perspective. Instead of the more common approach of analysing the ethics of the Old Testament, that is, morality prescribed or implied by the Old Testament (a theological construct), Barton looks for historical evidence of ‘ethical thinking’ in ancient Israel (a historical description). He advances two theses in this book: [i] ‘the documents we have from ancient Israel do not portray ethical obligation exclusively in terms of obedience to the declared will of God,’ and [ii] ‘the very idea that there was critical reflection on moral issues in ancient Israel’ (p.12). The book consists of introduction, ten chapters, conclusion, bibliography and indices. Read the rest of this entry »


Old Testament Theology: Reading the Hebrew Bible as Christian Scripture

In Baker Academic, HB/OT, Hermeneutics, Kengo Akiyama, R. W. L. MOBERLY on October 20, 2014 at 10:36 pm

2014.10.17 | R. W. L Moberly. Old Testament Theology: Reading the Hebrew Bible as Christian Scripture. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academics, 2013. pp.xiv + 333. ISBN: 9780801048852.

Reviewed by Kengo Akiyama.
University of Edinburgh.

Many thanks to Baker Academic for providing a review copy.

In this book, Moberly offers a series of theological reflection on select biblical texts. It is designed to be a sequel to his earlier work, The Theology of the Book of Genesis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009). The book is comprised of an introduction, eight “freestanding” chapters, an epilogue and indices. Although each of the eight chapters can be read on its own without any knowledge of the other chapters, the studies are arranged in a particular order to give shape and coherence to the book. Whereas the first five chapters focus on the topics that are “‘doctrinally foundational’ for the vision of God and of human life with God”, the last three chapters turn to “perennially problematic dimensions within human response to God” (p.281). Read the rest of this entry »