Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 64:1 (Mar 2021)
Article: Song, Psalm, And Sermon: Toward A Center Of Biblical Theology
Author: Trent A. Rogers

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Song, Psalm, And Sermon: Toward A Center Of Biblical Theology

Trent A. Rogers*

^* Trent A. Rogers is Assistant Professor of New Testament and Greek at Cedarville University, 251 N. Main Street, Cedarville, OH 45314. He may be contacted at [email protected].

Abstract: Biblical theology is often described as reading the Bible on its own terms. This study is an exercise in that biblical theological task to understand better the central themes that emerge as most important and consistent when the biblical authors, prompted by various circumstances, retell the biblical storyline. By analyzing extended retellings of the Bible by biblical authors (often occurring in the form of songs, psalms, and sermons), this study proposes a methodology that avoids the circularity inherent in selecting a theme for the text and then proving that theme from the text. Biblical theology seeks to explain all Scripture as a unified story, and I am suggesting that giving special consideration to how these biblical authors interpretively retell the Bible is a step forward in reading the Bible on its own terms. Their emphases serve as a compass and corrective as we try to navigate the whole Bible.

Key words: biblical theology, center, kingdom, glory, presence, faithfulness, faith

There has been a concerted effort in the field of biblical theology to locate a central theme, idea, or phrase that accurately describes the Bible’s overarching message or story.1 It is an effort to articulate the Bible’s unity while recognizing its diversity. While this endeavor is the natural impulse for those who understand Scripture as arising from a single divine author, those who have undertaken this task have not agreed on either the central theme or the hermeneutic for locating that

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central theme.2 This lack of consensus has led many to claim that the attempt to locate one central theme, while laudable in theory, is reductionistic or impossible in practice.3

If biblical theology, as it is often described, is the study of the Bible on its own terms, then one expression of biblical theology is the biblical authors’ own retellings and interpretations of the Bible. I am proposing that a helpful step forward is to analyze what themes are central when the biblical authors retell the biblical story. My concerns in this article involve both methodology (analyzing the biblical authors’ own retellings) and content (discerning whether there is a consistent, central theme wh...