The question of how Christians ought to understand and appropriate the Old Testament has sparked controversy for centuries.

The very words Old Testament have put Christians at odds with Jews in interpreting these ancient Jewish documents. Over the past thirty years, in particular, scholars within the Christian tradition have pursued a variety of sometimes complementary, sometimes competing approaches to Old Testament study.

John Goldingay surveys and evaluates five significant strains of thought within recent scholarship:

the Old Testament as a faith, as a way of life, as the story of salva-tion, as a witness to Christ and as Scripture.

An extensive bibliography complements Goldingay's analysis.

John Goldingay is lecturer in Old Testament at St. John's College. Nottingham, and the author of Songs from a Strange Land: Psalms 42-51 in The Bible Speaks Today series.