the weblog of Alan Knox

Brevard S. Childs

Posted by on Jun 27, 2007 in biblical theology, blog links | 1 comment

According to a report from Yale Divinity School, Brevard S. Childs passed away on Saturday, June 23, 2007. Some of you recognize his name and know his impact on biblical studies and biblical theology – my current field of study. Others may not recognize the name “Brevard Childs”.

In his 1970 book Biblical Theology in Crisis (and in many books that followed) Childs suggested an approach to biblical theology that was revolutionary for the era of critical scholarship: biblical theology must begin with the canonical texts. Modern books on biblical theology almost always begin with or interact with Childs on this point.

While I have not read Childs broadly (yet), I recognize his influence on the writers that I have read. Even though I have not agreed with Childs on everything that I’ve read (if scholars agreed with one another, then we would put ourselves out of a job…), I appreciate his insistence on beginning the study of biblical theology from the texts themselves.

Related posts:

  1. Childs on the Development of Biblical Theology as a Discipline
  2. Childs on Systematic Categories in Biblical Theology
  3. Suggested Readings in Biblical Theology
  4. Biblical Theology

One Comment

Comments are closed. If you would like to discuss this post, send an email to alan [at] alanknox [dot] net.

  1. 7-15-2013
    Collin Cornell says:

    For a short introduction to Childs’ approach, consider this piece:

    http://kaleidobible.blogspot.com/2013/03/intro-to-brevard-childs.html