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Biblical Critical Theory

How the Bible's Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture

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Biblical Critical Theory

By: Christopher Watkin, Timothy Keller
Narrated by: Christopher Ashman
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About this listen

*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.

Accompanying figures and bibliography are included in the audiobook companion PDF download.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 Christopher Watkin (P)2023 Zondervan Academic Christian Living Christianity
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Highly recommend this book! I have been both reading this book (digital version) and listening to its audiobook version for a few months on and off. It’s really fascinating and encouraging to consider how the Bible and its storyline offers its own critical theory that consistently subverts and offers a way that is much better, much more profound, and much more meaningful than the extreme views that people hold.

Watkin shows why every bit of biblical teaching matters (answering the questions of “so what?”, “what’s the point of this?” or “what difference does it make to believe this?”) and offers countless practical applications for an incredibly wide range of topics and contemporary issues.

Watkin also recognises that what the Bible teaches is even more than a theory; it’s perfectly embodied (incarnated) through Jesus the Christ! What an inspiring book.

Inspiring book!

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The issues that this book addresses are timely and relevant. Christopher uses illustrations ranging from the 1st Century through to Marvel movies and Lady Gaga. This turns his explanations of the relevance of French philosophises into practical and understandable principles. He writes persuasively, not dispassionately. One might wish that he used less adverbs but the price would have been a lessening of the persuasiveness of his argument. Well done.

Brilliant book with excellent narration

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Watkin does an excellent job of walking through the bible and asking ‘so what?’ He does this by systematically working through the bible and showing its intersection with our world and culture. Highly recommended, will be reading again.

Excellent

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An incredible Biblical engagement with culture. One of those rare books that feels prophetic in its analysis. Francis Schaeffer-esque. Christopher Watkin is an immensely wise and utterly clear guide through the pages of Scripture and in revealing how God’s Word answers the dichotomies and paradoxes in culture and society. I studied at Monash University and I’m bummed I didn’t attend one of Watkin’s lectures (even though I don’t know a thing about French studies).

Brilliant

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I scored his book Biblical Critical Theory 95/100.
Excellent both in theological depth and breadth.
Excellent philosophically.
Very good politically. That's where I took points off because I thought it made political points of it's own, i.e. climate change, instead of going back to Genesis 1-11.
Corrected a few ways of my own thinking, particularly politically. Helped me understand for example: Republican/Conservative "they took responsibility for their actions"; Democrat/Liberal "The society around them provoked their mistake"; The Bible - all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So not just the subtle differences but the way we amplify or apply them.
The book also highlighted how society for the last 200 years has been influenced by science (and technology) and has probably become its own religion. That influence has been getting progressively stronger since WWII.
Narration was brilliant. Using a little more international English/pronunciation helped but this narrator is of the highest standard.
Excellent value for money buying the book this way. It is a marathon listened to in 15min chunks. I needed the small chunks to be able to process the information.

Well Worth The Marathon

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I liked his thoughtful work and I massive amount of work looking at our culture and the cultural ideas that have lead to this time in history. I'm going to buy the written book.

thoughtful work on Christian cultural theory

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