The "Biblical" in "Biblical Theology"

What do we mean--or what should we mean--by the term "biblical theology"? Is it the same as the New Testament use of the Old Testament? Is it more biblical than systematic theology? And is there a reading of Holy Scripture that is demanded by and provoked by its very nature as Scripture rather than just a book of books?

In our last two episodes, Drs. Garcia, Williams, and Letham reflected on particular challenges facing the church in the United Kingdom and throughout the West—including North America. That challenge, we noted, is two-fold as it has to do not only with theology but also with the way Holy Scripture is perceived, spoken of, interpreted, and proclaimed in relation to the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. The relationship of Christ to Scripture, particularly the Old Testament, is a key area of significant concern among conservative Christians. To refer again to a common expression, a high view of Scripture which insists on important attributes such as inspiration and inerrancy tends too often to exist independently of a high use of Scripture.

What then might the high use of Scripture entail? One way this question has been answered in recent generations is with reference to so-called "biblical theology." But almost as quickly as the term was introduced it has required explanation and has been used in a wide variety of ways. Do we mean, by biblical theology, something different from or even the opposite of systematic or dogmatic theology? Does the term mean a theology that is more biblical than other approaches? Does it refer to a largely descriptive and historical enterprise characterizing how various biblical authors or later editors understood the subject matter they deal with? More common in conservative circles, does biblical theology essentially mean how we can find anticipations of Jesus in the Old Testament that are confirmed explicitly in the New Testament—or more generally, the New Testament use of the Old Testament? And should our reading rules and strategies start with and even end with our reading rules for any other kind of text? Or does the fact that Scripture is God's Word play a difference in how we read from the start?

At Greystone, the use of Scripture connected to a properly high view of Scripture serves as a key aspect of our mission for the renewal and re-invigoration of the Church in faith and life. Understanding this Greystone mission can be approached by way of the reasons why Greystone answers "no" to all of those aforementioned approaches to or models of biblical theology. What then do we want to say about biblical theology?

Dr. Don Collett, Greystone Fellow in Old Testament and professor of Old Testament at Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, PA (USA). He has been teaching course modules and participating in rich conversations with us at Greystone from the beginning, and has often provided stimulating and compelling explanations of biblical theology as it ought to be carried out against a backdrop of not only modern critical and evangelical approaches to Scripture, but more importantly against the backdrop of the Church herself and her particular faith-claims and commitments concerning Lord Jesus Christ. 

In today's Greystone Conversations episode, we are pleased to invite you to listen in on the first lecture segment in Dr. Collett's new full-course module with Greystone called Hermeneutics of Christian Scripture which was recently run live at Greystone and is nearly ready to be posted in fully produced form for Greystone Members at Greystone Connect. In this opening lecture, Dr. Collett introduces many of the concerns of the course module as a whole, remarking on many of the concerns addressed above.