An Introduction to the Old Testament, Third Edition

The Canon and Christian Imagination

By: Walter Brueggemann, Tod Linafelt

Narrated by: James Anderson Foster

Length: 21 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

In this updated edition of the popular textbook An Introduction to the Old Testament, Walter Brueggemann and Tod Linafelt introduce the listener to the broad theological scope of the Old Testament, treating some of the most important issues and methods in contemporary biblical interpretation. This clearly written textbook focuses on the literature of the Old Testament as it grew out of religious, political, and ideological contexts over many centuries in Israel's history. Covering every book in the Old Testament (arranged in canonical order), the authors demonstrate the development of theological concepts in biblical writings from the Torah through postexilic Judaism.

Incorporating the most current scholarship, this new edition also includes concrete tips for doing close examinations of the Old Testament text and a chapter on ways to read Scripture and respond in light of pressing contemporary issues, such as economic inequality, racial and gender justice, and environmental degradation. This introduction invites listeners to engage in the construction of meaning as they venture into these timeless texts.

©2012, 2020 Walter Brueggemann and Tod Linafelt (P)2021 Tantor

It's only an introduction

Beueggemann has done a fantastic job of relaying a long lifetime of study into a moderately manageable consumable book. I imagine he could have written a book ten times in length and it would still have been just as good.

an absorbing analysis

This is a dense and scholarly analysis of the old testament covering the formation, traditioning, and interpretation of the texts which came to form the Jewish Torah/Christian OT. It is a wonderful and complex introduction and guide to the ideas which have informed Torah interpretation and incorporates historical, sociological, and religious insights to this process. This is a dense and insightful work - not entertaining per se, but a trustworthy guide to some profound material. No one who engages with this work can fail to learn a vast amount about so complex a field/subject/text as the Jewish Torah/OT.