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Graeme Goldsworthy. Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000.272 pp. $20.00.
The professed aim of this volume is "to provide a handbook for preachers that will help them apply a consistently Christ-centered approach to their sermons" (p. ix). Or, more candidly, " . . . the aim of this book is to understand the place of the gospel in expository preaching" (p. 96). Goldsworthy is writing mainly for theologically trained pastors but also has in mind "a considerable body of lay preachers who may have had little or no formal training." He writes, "I am therefore aiming to keep technical language fairly muted while at the same time providing necessary references and technical comments in the footnotes"(p. ix). An introduction and initial chapter point us to the book's central thesis stated later as: ". . . all texts in the whole Bible bear a discernible relationship to Christ and are primarily intended as a testimony to Christ" (p. 113). Part 1 of the book asks basic questions about the Bible, biblical theology, and preaching to substantiate how the three are bound together and should be kept together: "Biblical theology is the discipline of seeking to understand the structure of biblical revelation which enables us to make correct connections between any text and the contemporary hearer. Biblical theology shows that the essence of hermeneutics lies in...