The Living Words of the Bible

In the four chapters of this short book, Bernhard Anderson, author of one of the most successful introductions to the Old Testament, The Living World of the Old Testament, looks at the implications of biblical criticism for the life and worship of the church. Clearly and simply, he provides a survey of more recent developments in biblical study, being particularly concerned to show their positive value rather than their negative effect. The Bible, and particularly the Old Testament, is approached by way of four perspectives: imagination, narration, liberation and obligation. This approach enables Professor Anderson first to show how much richer is a properly critical view of the Bible than a stubbornly fundamentalist understanding; secondly, to tackle once again the relationship between the Bible and history; thirdly, to assess the use of the Bible in modern 'liberation' theology, and finally, in an apocalyptic age, to show what the Bible has to say about the Christian's political responsibility.