Old Testament Theology- History, Issues, and Perspectives

Contextually, Old Testament (OT) has always been a popular part of the Holy Bible among the common people in India. In order to avoid a lot of misconceptions on the reception and use of the OT in India, the present research makes a detailed study on the history of the discipline of the Old Testament Theology right from the Nineteenth century of the Christian era.

The present volume on Old Testament Theology endeavors to present the material related to the subject matter as a comprehensive whole in order to see the entire Bible as a single plan of God's salivific activity for God's people from ancient times till today.

With this understanding and motto of erasing such a reductionistic view of the Old Testament, the work is divided into three major sections: First section summarizes the historical antecedents of the discipline of the OT theology in the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries. section deals with issues in the Old Testament that cannot be easily resolved and thus require a fresh approach in every epoch so that every interpretive community will have an opportunity to look and appropriate such issues in a meaningful way. Third and fourth sections take up the themes both in historical sequence and theological manner in an integrated way.

This comprehensive picture of the OT will certainly lure the interest of Historians, Theologians, Church Ministers, Christian Laity, Church Clergies, Church Libraries, Christian Colleges, Seminaries & Institutions, Researchers and Students, alike.

Rev. Dr. Kondasingu Jesurathnam is Professor of Old Testament at the United Theological College, Bangalore, South India. Also, he is an ordained minister of Telugu Baptist Church. During the year 2014 (Jan- Dec), he spent his year-long sabbatical in the United States. During this period, he taught at the two seminaries: Columbia Theological Seminary at Georgia and Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, as visiting Professor. His special areas of interests include Old Testament Theology, Psalms and Prophetic books. His scholarly venture also includes his magnum opus, published recently, Exploring Dalit Liberative Hermeneutics in India and the World, integrating the methodology of Dalit Hermeneutics with the Old Testament texts.

His wife Beatrice Veena teaches in the United Theological College Nursery School and his son David Sunil Wesley Raju is a postgraduate student in Bangalore in the area of English Literature.

The rise of Old Testament theology as a discipline distinct from the dogmatic theology did not occur until the eighteenth century A.D. Until that time, all theology was considered to be biblical, or the distinction between dogmatic theology and biblical theology was not really grasped and executed. The Bible was understood as the repository of the very truth that the theologians sought to delineate in a systematic manner. The Bible was thus seen as the basis for the theological enterprise and no tension was perceived between biblical faith and contemporary formulations as doctrines of the church. It was a long struggle in the history to argue and assert independence for the Old Testament Theology as a distinct discipline. We shall return to this issue later in the course of our discussion while talking about the other aspects of the history of the discipline.

One of the fundamental questions in our study is to talk about the definition of OT theology or what is OT theology? It is not an easy task to define what OT theology is. However, a preliminary attempt could be made in this regard as follows: OT theology is systematic presentation of various aspects of faith of the OT religion as they are reflected in the Old Testament. Some would even argue that OT theology does not merely stand in conformity with the Old Testament, but it is that theology described and contained in the Bible.

One of the difficult tasks for the scholars in the initial stages of Old Testament theology was to define the nature, function and scope of OT theology. For a long time the issues related to this was not resolved as they continue to debate until they settled for some consensus. We shall look at few proposals of the leading scholarly opinions in this regard.

Walther Eichrodt states that the task of OT theology is descriptive. By which he means that OT theology is supposed to present a coherent and systematic presentation of the Old Testament material. In other words Eichrodt is of the view that the task of OT theology is to "construct a complete picture of the Old Testament realm of belief."

**Contents and Sample Pages**