Undoubtedly one of the primary challenges to confront the beginning critical student of the Bible is the matter of synthesizing the Old Testament with the New Testament. There are ways to approach the scriptures (and have we not all fallen into this at some point?) in which the student begins to wonder whether the two Testaments are testifying to two different, even contrasting Gods and their religions. Yet although Marcionism is of course too extreme and heretical an approach for any Christian believer to confess, I wonder if indeed a "practical Marcionism" indeed operates at some subliminal level in the minds of some. That is, the Old Testament's seemingly "legalistic religion with a wrathful God" (p. 33) is an embarrassing conundrum. To avoid these seeming difficulties, the Old Testament is selectively gutted to become a child's storybook not unlike those of myth and legend (Noah, David & Goliath, Samson, etc.), a primer of moral injunctions (Decalogue, Proverbs, etc.), a compendium of sentimentalism (Psalms), and pointer to some oblique confirmation in prophecy to Jesus as Messiah. The unity of the Testaments is thus contrived, not theologically knitted.

In her book, The Old Testament and the Proclamation of the Gospel, Elizabeth Achtemeier issues an urgent summons to recover the essential unity of the Testaments, pointing out repeatedly that without a proper and full integration of the Old Testament, the New Testament cannot proclaim the fullness of its life-giving message. The heart of her argument seems to be the proposition that the Old Testament witnesses that God reveals Himself specifically to a certain people within a certain milieu in particular through the discourse of covenant. Without this historical anchor, Christian faith is set adrift into the currents of popular philosophies, a contemporary phenomenon Achtemeier laments at the time of her writing (1973). The latter bulk of her book, then, is a demonstration of how New Testament themes derive the fullness of illumination through the Old Testament.

Several points in this book struck me significantly, even if these were "off-to-the-side" of Achtemeier's main thesis. In her second chapter, "How the Old Testament Was Lost", Achtemeier attributes the Developmentalism of Julius Wellhausen as the hermeneutic that has ultimately led to a relativizing away of the Old Testament for a modern audience. This Wellhausian evolutionism of the religious mind from its Abrahamic roots in a culture of primitive "animism and polydaemonism," to monotheism, to complex cultic symbolism, finally to Christ and the church age, has according to Achtemeier been "disastrous for the church's understanding of two thirds of its canon" (p. 28). Whether "ideas about God and religion developed naturally from lower to higher forms .... [or] that this development represented God's progressive revelation of himself" (p. 29), the result was a de-evaluation of the Old Testament as an anachronism. As much as I dislike to admit, I recognize now that the Wellhausian paradigm has indeed been influencing me. Not only is it attractive to our self-pride ("we moderns are more sophisticated than the ancients"), but this Developmentalism offers a ready escape from sticky dilemmas such as the bloody "holy wars" (herem).

Finally, such Developmentalism can lead to a relativizing and contemporizing of even the Christian faith, as historical rootage is cut away. Achtemeier sees this most pointedly is what she termed in 1973 as "Reader's Digest religion" (p. 41), an adherence to a "mystical presence" that embodies truth, love, or other ethical ideals, and to which response in subjective, individualistic, and emotional (p. 42).

This is not to say that Achtemeier teaches a wooden, static Old Testament. She is clearly aligned with Heilsgeschichte, salvation history being her hermeneutical key throughout much of her lessons on Old Testament - New Testament interplay. Indeed, following her introductory apologetical and polemical essays for validity and necessity of the Old Testament, Achtemeier devotes the remaining book to illustrating her Heilsgeschichte hermeneutic through an outline of major New Testament themes informed by corresponding Old Testament passages.

"Because Yahweh is constantly on the move in the history of Israel, the Old Testament's witness to him constantly undergoes movement, constantly remains open toward the future that Yahweh shapes, and it is this characteristic of the Old Testament, born out of the nature of the word of God itself, which points its reader forward toward the witness of the New Testament" (p. 81).

God has a name, a character, a purpose, and a method, which is revealed during a span of a millennium to a people which undergoes cultural and historical shifts. By motif of covenant, this people reacts favorably or unfavorably. The transition to the New Covenant is therefore rooted, relevant for all subsequent ages and cultures.

Therefore, as the student applies this hermeneutical key of the salvation-covenanting God to critical Bible study, she or he finds in the various historical, political, cultural, and linguistic expressions the same One God who was and is and shall be.

My only criticism of this useful book is that much of the illustrative material (encompassing much of the book) seemed dry, due I think from Achtemeier's writing short summaries. These do make excellent outlines for further study and elucidation, but to wade through these was tedious and a letdown, inasmuch as Elizabeth Achtemeier is an exceptionally gifted inspirational teacher when she can develop a theme in detail and fullness. She does enclose illustrative sermons at the close of her book which glow with some of her spark.

Even though I am not typically a preacher, I did find Achtemeier's sermon preparation tips useful, particularly her warnings concerning developmentalism (p. 147), avoiding allegory (p. 153), and misapplication of symbolism and history (p. 154), all of which I have been guilty of!

The vastness and richness of the Old Testament is tempting to anyone who seeks a proof text. Yet by carefully reconstructing the context and purpose of the text for its original audience, then applying a valid hermeneutical key (such as Heilsgeschichte), one can extrapolate meaningfully and productively to the New Testament. Elizabeth Achtemeier has challenged me afresh to read the New Testament and Old Testament as paired and integrally connected, and given me instructive cautions and helpful tools for the task. Finally, and importantly, she has demonstrated that the task can be both fruitful and joyful!