Q. As one progresses through this fine book, one begins to wonder why exactly it is entitled The God of the OT, when in fact, you are simply talking about the Biblical God as revealed in both the OT and the NT. How did you come to land on this particular title?
A. The title of the actual Hulsean Lectures was in fact “The God of Christian Scripture”, and at one stage that was also the working title for the book. It was Jim Kinney and his colleagues at Baker Academic who proposed “The God of the OT” as the main title, with a choice of possible subtitles that included “Christian Scripture”. I didn’t bother to ask their rationale! I happily accepted the suggestion for two reasons. I readily recognized that “the God of the OT” is a common pejorative phrase, and there is value in seeking to offer a better understanding of its possible meaning. I also thought it could be helpful to indicate that the book is primarily a close reading of OT texts, however much I also seek to bring in the NT and other aspects of Christian thought and practice.
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