Biblical Critical Theory

With a foreword from Tim Keller

A bold vision for Christians who want to engage the world in a way that is biblically faithful and culturally sensitive.

In Biblical Critical Theory, Christopher Watkin shows how the Bible and its unfolding story help us make sense of modern life and culture.

Critical theories exist to critique what we think we know about reality and the social, political, and cultural structures in which we live. In doing so, they make visible the values and beliefs of a culture in order to scrutinize and change them.

Biblical Critical Theory exposes and evaluates the often-hidden assumptions and concepts that shape late-modern society, examining them through the lens of the biblical story running from Genesis to Revelation, and asking urgent questions like:

• How does the Bible's storyline help us understand our society, our culture, and ourselves
• How do specific doctrines help us engage thoughtfully in the philosophical, political, and social questions of our day
• How can we analyze and critique culture and its alternative critical theories through Scripture

Informed by the biblical-theological structure of Saint Augustine's magisterial work The City of God (and with extensive diagrams and practical tools), Biblical Critical Theory shows how the patterns of the Bible's storyline can provide incisive, fresh, and nuanced ways of intervening in today's debates on everything from science, the arts, and politics to dignity, multiculturalism, and equality. You'll learn the moves to make and the tools to use in analyzing and engaging with all sorts of cultural artifacts and events in a way that is both biblically faithful and culturally relevant.

It is not enough for Christians to explain the Bible to the culture or cultures in which we live. We must also explain the culture in which we live within the framework and categories of the Bible, revealing how the whole of the Bible sheds light on the whole of life.

If Christians want to speak with a fresh, engaging, and dynamic voice in the marketplace of ideas today, we need to mine the unique treasures of the distinctive biblical storyline.

“'A book that I have been eagerly anticipating for years. ... My prayers are that this book will bear much intellectual and spiritual fruit in many lives over the decades ahead.'”

'[Chris Watkin] maps a path out of some of the most fundamental impasses of our time . . . Urgent and weighty, Biblical Critical Theory is . . . simply, a tremendously exciting read.' NATASHA MOORE, Centre for Public Christianity
TIMOTHY KELLER, founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York
'A brilliant and unique book . . . It is the most biblical, up-to-date, and comprehensive analysis of contemporary Western culture that I know of.' JOSHUA CHATRAW, Center for Public Christianity
'A seminal text for us . . . A foundation and frame for years to come. Absolutely essential reading' DAN STRANGE, Crosslands Forum
'An important update of Augustine's City of God, a proposal for making biblical sense of what is happening in contemporary culture.' KEVIN J. VANHOOZER, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
'Biblical Critical Theory doesn't just give us answers; it helps us to come up with better questions . . . An innovative and immensely fruitful paradigm.' MICHAEL HORTON, Westminster Seminary California
'Incisive, accessible, and astonishing in scope . . . ' DOLORES G. MORRIS, University of South Florida
'This book is a feast. Chris Watkin accomplishes what few have.' WILLIAM EDGAR, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia
'This book is a must-read for all serious thinkers.' SAM CHAN, City Bible Forum
'This is a magnificent achievement. It is a must-read . . . Here is a total defence and commendation of Christianity like no other. Buy it. Read it. Ponder it. Pass it on.' JOHN DICKSON, author and historian

Christopher Watkin (PhD, University of Cambridge) is senior lecturer in French studies at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. He is a scholar with an international reputation in the area of modern and contemporary European thought, atheism, and the relationship between the Bible and philosophy. His published work runs the spectrum from academic monographs on contemporary philosophy to books written for general readers, both Christian and secular, and include Difficult Atheism, From Plato to Postmodernism, Great Thinkers: Jacques Derrida, and others.

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