At Home in a Strange Land: Using the Old Testament in Christian Ethics [Paperback]

Andrew Sloane (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2008

The Old Testament is a problem for many Christians. Some find it puzzling, or even offensive; others seem to glibly misuse it for their own ends. There are few resources aimed at enabling ordinary Christians to understand the OT and use it in their lives as followers of Jesus.

In this book At Home in a Strange Land: Using the Old Testament in Christian Ethics, Andrew Sloane seeks to address this need. He outlines some of the problems that ordinary Christians face in reading the Old Testament as part of Christian Scripture and provides a framework for interpreting the Old Testament and using it in Christian ethics. He identifies some of the key biblical texts of both the Old Testament and the New Testament that both inform Christian ethics and challenge us to live as God's people. Using the paradigm of learning to travel in unfamiliar places, Sloane seeks to equip the reader with tools for understanding many of the puzzling and difficult passages found in the Old Testament. In sum, the book aims to "rehabilitate" the Old Testament for ordinary, even skeptical, 21st century Christians.

While many of the issues have been covered elsewhere, there is very little that seeks to bring together questions of interpretation and "ethical application" in one book aimed at lay people. The book would also be valuable in a college course on Christian ethics.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Andrew Sloane joined the faculty of Morling College (the Baptist Theological College of NSW) in 2002 as Lecturer in Old Testament and Christian Thought. He initially trained as a doctor, before turning to theology. He completed his theological education at Morling College and has worked in Baptist churches in Sydney and Newcastle and lectured at Ridley College in Melbourne. He has written on Old Testament, interpretation, ethics and philosophy.

Product Details

• Paperback: 259 pages
• Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers (November 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1598560840
• ISBN-13: 978-1598560848
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,064,949 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deeply moving and challenging, January 22, 2009

By 

N. Vandersee (Toowoomba, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: At Home in a Strange Land: Using the Old Testament in Christian Ethics (Paperback)

Don't read this book if all you want is some interesting information on a few topics in the OT. Yes in some ways it is interesting and informative but it is much, much more.

Sloane lucidly introduces us to some basic, but profound hermeneutical issues and principles, which in some/many ways is based upon Nicholas Wolterstorff's work "Divine Discourse". Sloane's summaries and thoughts here will prove to be a valuable resource to present and future students of biblical hermeneutics who are looking for reliable and helpful methodology which is sensibly and thoughtfully argued. Incidentally, Sloane did his doctoral thesis on Wolterstorff, about which Wolterstorff himself said "He has understood and organized my thoughts better than myself", not a bad commendation I must say.

"At Home in a Strange Land" is a seriously challenging book from a man who writes with wisdom, sensibility and insight on many of the deeply troubling issues of the OT. He tackles things such as the texts of violence, slavery, gender issues in Genis 1-3 to name but a few. You will find help on how to interpret and apply texts from the Psalms through to the Prophets and he includes a particularly helpful section on OT Narrative (with a helpful critique of Fee and Stewart's 'How to Read the Bible...' along the way) All the while he keeps urging us to see the relevance of these texts for our ethics and values today: the way we live as God's people. You will be forced to think about how you view God, how you view yourself and your values and whether you are willing to do anything about it in light of the authoritative word of God.

This book is nothing less than the Text re-revealed; in many ways it is written proclamation and I am grateful for it. Buy it, read it, hear God speaking though the faithful expositions of the Scriptures to be found in it, and then go and live accordingly...for the sake of Jesus reputation in a world that so desperately needs to know Him.