Some Recent Old Testament Studies and the Preacher

Abstract

"In the present time Old Testament studies are certainly undergoing a significant period of change, and there is very much less in the way of a consensus than at one time prevailed among scholars. Most startling of all to the student of the Bible is the way in which scholars now seem willing to question a number of hypotheses and conclusions that had at one time enjoyed the status of representing a kind of critical "orthodoxy". The effect is that, although there are still a number of standard volumes of introduction and historical background to the Old Testament, many of the most interesting discussions are taking place over the questions whether such approaches to a religious literature are really what is needed. In many ways this type of fundamental questioning has a good deal of relevance to the preacher, and it has certainly produced some very interesting books, even though they may be looked upon as having a kind of exploratory character"