By Chad Spelman, TGC.
Review: ‘Biblical Theology in the Life of the Early Church’ by Stephen O. Presley.
In the Church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris, vivid frescoes depict the unified story of salvation, centered on the person and work of Jesus Christ. In a side chapel in that same building, the body of René Descartes lies. It’s an odd juxtaposition between the premodern vision of the integrity of the Bible’s storyline and a memorial to the man who is, arguably, the father of modernity.
Stephen Presley begins his book Biblical Theology in the Life of the Early Church: Recovering an Ancient Vision by reflecting on his experience visiting Saint-Germain-des-Prés because it illustrates the tension many modern Christians experience. As Presley—an associate professor of church history at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary—has experienced, those engaged in academic study of Christianity are often pulled in two directions between the ancient, integrated vision of biblical theology lived within the church and the fragmented, often detached approaches prevalent in the academy.
This tension helps explain why, according to Presley, contemporary biblical theology is at an impasse, struggling with methodological diversity and a disconnect from the church’s life. That’s why he argues we need to recover the early church’s approach to biblical theology as we navigate a world that increasingly resembles the pagan context of the first centuries. He shows that biblical theology was deeply woven into the fabric of the early church’s worship, doctrine, ethics, and mission. This approach offers “a truly Christian way of reading Scripture”.