A Book Recommendation for “What Is Biblical Theology?”

Christians sometimes see the Bible as an instruction manual containing rules for pleasing God or living a happy life. Other times, we treat it like a book of moral lessons to help us grow or build character. So, we learn courage as we “dare to be a Daniel”, or faith as we “slay the giants” of adversity the way David slayed Goliath. We tend to treat the Bible this way because, so often, we read the Bible in bits and pieces, unable to see that, in reality, it is telling a single, grand story.

That’s what makes What Is Biblical Theology by James M. Hamilton such an important and timely introduction to reading the Bible as a whole. The word theology (theos – “God” + logos – “word”) simple means “words about God”. This means every Christian is a theologian, which makes biblical theology a skill every Christian can and should learn.

Hamilton defines biblical theology this way:

“To do biblical theology is to think about the whole story of the Bible. We want to understand the organic development of the Bible’s teaching so that we are interpreting particular parts of the story in light of the whole.” (p. 13)

Hamilton does a great job at making the “whole” story of the Bible visible for those of us who aren’t Bible scholars or seminary professors. In the three main sections of the book, he helps us identity the Bible’s “Big” story, the symbols and patterns that repeat throughout, and the ultimate love story that the Bible tells about Jesus — the Creator’s love for his Creation.

The goal of this book is to help every Christian understand the Bible better by seeing it as a unified, true, and eternal story, so that every Christian can see how, in Jesus, God has invited us into this story to live in loving relationship with him, forever.