Old Testament Theology: The Writings

The overall objective of this course is to lay the foundation for a lifetime of work in the Writings, introducing the student to all of the essential processes and resources necessary to frame in a biblical theology of the Writings and to a process of moving from biblical theology to theology in culture.  Specifically, this means that each person studying the course will:

• Develop an overall understanding of the Writings, including the development of a canonical intent statement that integrates the overall intention and literary design for the Writings as a canonical section and the role the Writings play in relation to the other sections of the Old Testament canon.

• Develop skill in handling the special literature of the Writings, majoring on poetry, pastoral, and wisdom literature, which the authors used to shape their books in this colorful section of the Old Testament

• Develop an author’s intention statement for each book, which pays careful attention to the literary design; develop a theology of each book, which develops the author’s emphasis of crafting his theological ideas.

• Develop a theology of the Writings as a whole that, again, respects the literary design of the Writings as a section of the Old Testament canon and identifies the careful crafting of the author’s theological ideas, identifying both themes and rhemes.

• Develop a framework for beginning to use the Writings in both life and ministry, including framing in a couple of ideas for preaching from the Writings in future series.