Grenville J.R. Kent, Paul J. Kissling and Laurence A. Turner, eds.

, Reclaiming the Old

Testament for Christian Preaching, Downers Grove, Il: IVP Academic, 2010. 250pp.

Reviewed by Jim West

Having read the volume I have only one criticism: they should have titled it differently.
‘Reclaiming’ implies that something has been lost or abandoned and it certainly isn’t true
that persons preaching from the Old Testament have disappeared. That’s simply not the
case at all. Perhaps ‘Reinvigorating the Old Testament For Christian Preaching’ or
perhaps simply ‘The Old Testament for Christian Preaching’.

That qualm aside, this is a fantastic volume. Absolutely fantastic. Contributors include,
among others, David Firth, Gordon Wenham, HGM Williamson, and Grenville J.R. Kent.
And I mention Kent last because, as the Bible instructs us, the last shall be first. And
Kent’s essay definitely, for this reviewer, takes pride of place in this enormously useful
collection as the best. [And I don’t say that to imply that the others are less valuable- I
just found Kent’s the most engaging].

Readers of the collection are treated to explanations of how to preach from narrative
texts, the Law, lament, praise poetry, wisdom, the Song of Solomon (to which we will
return momentarily), Isaiah, Ezekiel, Apocalyptic, the Minor Prophets, and from ‘difficult’
texts (to which we will also momentarily return). The volume concludes with Moberly’s
‘Preaching Christ from the Old Testament’.

Kent’s essay, ‘Preaching the Song of Solomon’ (pp. 122ff) should serve as a model for
theologians interested in integrating wit and practical advice in biblical interpretation.
He begins with an illustration from a film by Rowan Atkinson and then launches into a
series of helpful bits of advice for preachers of the text. First, he suggests ways ‘not’ to
read the Song. Don’t allegorize it and don’t overdramatize it. How then should it be
read? Read it as wisdom, he suggests, and find God’s subtle presence in it.

Presumably God could have designed us to reproduce using

windblown pollen, and so the fact that sex is pleasurable and
companionable can offer clues to his character and his
purposes for us. Love and sex are ‘very good’ and the gift
reflects the Giver (p. 132).

He next suggests that the text be read as part of the story of redemption, as metaphor,
and most especially, as part of its original culture.
Finally he offers some very practical advice on preaching the Song. Preachers must be
age-appropriate. They must also be positive. They must deal with guilt, dialogue with
the culture, welcome questions, and offer a broad ‘theology of sex’. Nonetheless, their
language must be tasteful- as the Song itself is- and take gradual steps.

The essay ends with a suggested sermon outline for Song 4:12-5:1 which Kent titles ‘I Dig
Your Garden’.

I want to mention one other essay because I found it most intriguing: Gordon Wenham’s
‘Preaching From Difficult Texts’ (pp. 215ff).

He introduces his topic by urging Pastors to be sensitive to their congregations and not
try to offer more than they can absorb. He then moves to his central concern- that the
difficulties found in the Old Testament so far as preaching texts are concerned are
‘misunderstandings of OT customs, and clashes between the biblical outlook and the
modern world’ (p. 217).

Brilliantly, indeed, most brilliantly, Wenham describes the purpose of genealogies,

sacrifice, slavery, and the law of retaliation and he shows how those problematic (for
moderns ) concepts can be broached and approached. Next, he offers some useful
insights to preaching passages like Genesis 1 (brilliant!), passages which are seen to
aggrandize violence, and those pesky imprecatory psalms. In connection with the latter
he observes that the Psalmists never seek to take matters into their own hands. Rather,
they leave justice to God.

Wenham illuminates the practicality of his approach in a sermon preached on 4

September, 2005 and which concludes his contribution.

The quality of Kent’s and Wenham’s essays are unquestionable. Moberly’s is a bit weaker
but still quite engaging. Williamson’s is fantastic but space (and time) preclude full
discussion of it.

For Pastors interested in making better use and fuller use of their Old Testament, this
volume is highly recommended. Most highly. But students of the Old Testament who
have no particular interest in preaching will also benefit greatly from it for in it,
methodology is illuminated by actual practice.

This book should be required reading in introductory Old Testament classes as

supplemental reading and it should similarly be required reading for Hermeneutics
classes. And I happen to know a great number of Pastors who ought to read it. It would
certainly enrich their preaching. And so benefit their congregations.