God's Relational Presence

The Cohesive Center of Biblical Theology

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Pub Date Nov 19 2019 | Archive Date Jul 17 2020

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Description

Two leading biblical scholars and bestselling authors offer a fresh approach to the question of the unity of the whole Bible. This book shows that God's desire to be with his people is a thread running from Genesis through Revelation. Duvall and Hays make the case that God's relational presence is central to the Bible's grand narrative. It is the cohesive center that drives the whole biblical story and ties together other important biblical themes, such as covenant, kingdom, glory, and salvation history.

Two leading biblical scholars and bestselling authors offer a fresh approach to the question of the unity of the whole Bible. This book shows that God's desire to be with his people is a thread...


Advance Praise

“Think of being able to walk through the web of themes that make up the whole Bible and have them make sense as a coherent whole. God’s Relational Presence is a great step in that direction. It introduces you to all the sections of Scripture and to the synthetic discussions of what links them all together. I enthusiastically recommend this book.”—Darrell L. Bock, executive director of cultural engagement and senior research professor of New Testament studies, Dallas Theological Seminary

“Duvall and Hays make a clear and convincing case that the relational presence of God is indeed the central theme of biblical theology. The book is full of those ‘Well, of course!’ and ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’ moments. Just consider the biblical story: Human beings were created to be in relationship with God. That relationship was broken by the fall. The rest of the Bible describes the restoration and renewal of that relationship, climaxing with God dwelling with his people in the book of Revelation. ‘Well, of course this is the central theme of the Bible!’ With such a simple yet profound thesis, so well written and comprehensively executed, this volume is destined to become a classic.”—Mark L. Strauss, Bethel Seminary 

“Scott Duvall and Daniel Hays are two of my favorite biblical scholars. I am constantly blessed by their works, and now I can add God’s Relational Presence to that number. This is a compressive biblical theology that covers the entire canon of Scripture. They make a compelling argument that the relational presence of God is the ‘cohesive center’ that ties all the major biblical-theological themes together in the great redemptive story. This resource will well serve faithful teachers of the Word of God. It is a volume I will seek out again and again.”—Daniel L. Akin, president and professor of preaching and theology, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

“What a wonderful gift to the church! This is great teamwork by an Old Testament and a New Testament scholar. It is the fruit of years of interaction with and meditation on the Scriptures, to which their many published works attest. I had a hard time putting this book down. Duvall and Hays engage in the search for the holy grail of biblical theology—the elusive center. While many scholars will not agree that they have found the center, they have come very close. Beginning in the garden with the uninterrupted communion between God and the first human community and ending in the garden-city with that same communion, Duvall and Hays explore the plotline of the Bible through the fall, the call of the patriarchs, the exodus, Sinai, the conquest and the kingdom, the exile, the prophetic hope and the realization of those hopes in Christ, the church, and the eschaton. They argue that this cohesive center is not like the hub of a wheel, where the spokes perfectly align, but more like the center of a spider web, where the threads are more asymmetrical, connecting sometimes directly and other times more indirectly. Exegetically sound and comprehensive in research, this book becomes essential reading for biblical theology!”—Stephen G. Dempster, professor of religious studies, Crandall University

“Our Bible is actually a library of over sixty books. Christians have even disagreed over the exact number and names of these various books. So, other than a leather binding, why do we think this collection of books is really one book? Duvall and Hays make the case that these books are one book because they are one story, the story of the Creator showing up in the midst of his creation, of God pursuing a relationship with his people.”—E. Randolph Richards, provost, chief academic officer, and professor of biblical studies, Palm Beach Atlantic University

“From creation to new creation, God’s relational presence stands as a cohesive center for the whole Bible. With care and clarity, Duvall and Hays trace this through the canon, demonstrating both its prevalence and its relevance for understanding how the Bible fits together. This will be essential reading for all courses on biblical theology.”—David G. Firth, Trinity College Bristol and University of the Free State

“Think of being able to walk through the web of themes that make up the whole Bible and have them make sense as a coherent whole. God’s Relational Presence is a great step in that direction. It...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9780801049590
PRICE $37.00 (USD)
PAGES 416

Average rating from 2 members


Featured Reviews

My review of God’s Relational Presence: The Cohesive Center of Biblical Theology co-written by J. Scott Duval and J. Richard Hays.

What does this book offer the Church?
One of the most elusive aspects of conducting a survey of Biblical Theology is finding a core concept that runs throughout the entire Bible, cohesively bringing together the Old and New Testament as a single, Christian document, with continuity from the start to the finish. You might be familiar with some of these concepts, or some works, such as the concepts of God’s glory or God’s love, maybe the kingdom, or excellent Biblical Theologies like Schreiner’s The King in His Beauty. Hays and Duvall offer a different, but persuasive concept instead: that of God’s presence with his people.

Starting from Genesis and moving to the end of Revelation, Hays and Duvall show that the theme of God’s presence with his people runs throughout the entire Bible. They do show by bringing out individual passages, each of which are carefully chosen as showing how God’s presence doesn’t just show up in every book, but showing how they inform and impact the book.

How successfully does this Church meet its goals?
At first, I was curious how this book would go. I am very familiar with Hays’ works, and I feel like I quote him or allude to his work in almost any theology piece that I wrote for seminary, and I reference him in almost every theological conversation I have. It was more Duvall that I was curious about, as I was not helped by Grasping God’s Word as much as some people were. It was a bit confusing and less than helpful at crucial moments, so I was curious to see how he would make the jump to a more serious, scholarly work.

I am happy to report there were no problems with the two co-writing the book, as each helpfully brought their insights and scholarly work to bear on the most crucial passages here, writing an extremely helpful and elucidating biblical theology, one that should join the shelves of any student or pastor interested in doing the work of biblical theology.

The book is a weighty tome – and unfortunately, the price does reflect this on most sites – but each page is used extremely well. I never felt overloaded with information, but rarely was a point made without referencing a verse or a scholar. I never felt like the page count loomed, as I have with certain books: for example, I LOVE NT Wright, but I felt the length of Paul and the Faithfulness of God more than I would like to admit. Not so, here, as the book remains engaging and helpful almost the entire way through.

I don’t see this book becoming *the* prime biblical theology book, as I don’t think the field is looking for *one* book to stand in the center of all of them. But I do think this book should become a standard in the biblical theology canon, one that should grace the shelves of anyone doing biblical theology as a supplement to the other books within the field.

If you would like to learn more about the book, you can check Baker’s website; you can also purchase the book through a local bookstore or Amazon.

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