Christopher Watkin

This is an extraordinary book. It is fairly academic in its language use. I consider myself a mature lay Christian, but it did requir me to google the meaning of some of the terminology. However, that does not take away from its overall presentation and the wealth of Christian information provided. The book is quite dense, and required very careful reading, and sometimes, re-reading, some paragraphs or passages a second or third time to fully digest them. At times with this work, I had to stop after reading only 5-10 pages, as some of the material was complex and just time consuming. Because of the book’s length and complexity (at least for a lay person), it took me slightly over 3 months to get through, and that was with reading its pages almost every day. Its nature reminded me of some of the (secular) textbooks I had to read through in college. Since one of my men’s faith groups Christian had some discussion about different bible translations at one of our meetings, and I had just come across a passage in this book on translations, I scanned and sent one paragraph from the book to the other members for their thoughts. The paragraph was only about 6-8 sentences long, but most of the members were wondering where I had discovered this book and were fairly amazed at the depth and content in such a relatively brief paragraph.

I do highly recommend the book. I learned a wealth of new information and it helped me expand my biblical knowledge and strengthen my faith. Although I was able to find the book through my local library, I had not purchased it. Having returned it after finishing it about a month ago, I am strongly considering purchasing a copy for my permanent book library because of its coverage of Christian critical theory.… (más)

Brilliant, insightful, deep, creative, culturally engaged

A Biblical Critical Theory contains Christopher Watkin’s thesis that the Bible offer a better lens for understanding and critiquing the language, stories and ideas of our world than do the cortical theories of our day.

Watkin is a gifted polymath, who shows skill as a philosopher, biblical exegete, theologian and cultural observer. In one chapter he weaves together ideas from Hobbes, Rousseau, Kierkegaard with illustrations from Avengers Endgame, as he unpacks God’s covenant to Abraham in Genesis 15 and 22. He rounds out the chapter with a warm hearted connection to God‘s sacrifice of his own Son.

The book functions somewhat as a dictionary of Biblical critical theories — with each chapter offering a different lens to understand and critique culture. Only, the themes of Watkin’s dictionary are not organised by letter but by the chronology of the Bible and the epochs of salvation history.

For this reason, the book can feel tedious to read (like reading a dictionary) as there is no emerging theme being developed chapter by chapter. Nevertheless, each chapter builds on the numerous ways the Bible diagonalizes the reductive heresies of our culture and out-narrates them.

I am looking forward to re-reading specific chapters when I come to preaching the themes and Bible passages that Watkin addresses. His insights will provide plentiful fodder for engaging unbelievers and strengthening believers in the gospel.… (más)