Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible's Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture

“A book that I have been eagerly anticipating for years...I'm especially pleased that Chris, while exhibiting an extraordinary breadth of learning and reading, wrote this book not only for an academic press or audience but also for educated laypersons and Christian leaders. I believe that academics, particularly Christian ones, have a responsibility to build on this. I think preachers (especially younger ones in more secular and pluralistic environments) will be able to benefit enormously from this material.”

“One of the best books I've ever read.”

“Watkin turns and overturns the tables of today’s culture-changers by examining various criticaltheories through biblical lenses rather than vice versa. Biblical Critical Theory is an important update of Augustine’s City of God, a proposal for making biblical sense of what is happening incontemporary culture. This is the ultimate how-to book for disciples looking to beat ideological swords and other weapons in the popular culture wars into gospel plowshares, tools for making sense of, and reconciling, the contradictions of our present moment.”

“I am so thankful to God that this long-awaited book has finally arrived at this particular moment in our late modern world. For those of us who have been advocating the imperative of biblically faithful cultural critique and construction, Chris Watkin has taken away our blunt machete and given us a scalpel; indeed, he’s given us a whole set of diagnostic and surgical tools. Biblical Critical Theory will become a seminal text for us: part manifesto, part Bible overview (the most maximal one imaginable), part blueprint for civilization. It’s a revelation about the implications and applications of God’s revelation and how Jesus Christ is the subversive fulfillment of all and every culture. In terms of Christian doctrine, Watkin admits that he is saying nothing new, but the arrangement of the material is menthol fresh, his interlocutors are the heavyweights, and his writing is a model of elegance, engagement, and empathy. From first steps in Christian discipleship, through catechesis and seminary, and to the highest level of academic research, Watkin’s work in Biblical Critical Theory will be a foundation and frame for years to come. Absolutely essential reading”

“Commendations of this book will likely sound like wild exaggerations. They are not. Christopher Watkin has done something remarkable. He has given thoughtful believers and doubters a whirlwind tour of both the biblical narrative and the myriad ways that narrative critiques, commends, and completes the best thoughts of thinkers from Plato to Popper. Watkin is a thoroughly reliable guide to complex biblical material, whether the patriarchal narratives, eighth-century prophets, or apocalyptic literature. And when he steps onto the field of his main expertise— modern intellectual history— he truly shines. He does not attempt to dazzle us with his intimate knowledge of often-impenetrable thinkers like Heidegger, Marx, and Foucault. Instead, he shows why such figures deserve their place among the greats, how their ideas continue to influence contemporary life, and why they are wrong when they are wrong, only because they preserve a half-truth that is found complete in the Bible. This book is a magnificent achievement. It is a must-read for Christian leaders wanting to think biblically about our de-Christianizing world. It is also a gift for those who aren’t sure what to make of the Christian faith. Here is a total defense and commendation of Christianity like no other. Buy it. Read it. Ponder it. Pass it on.”

“We not only read the Bible; the Bible reads us, challenging familiar assumptions about “the way things are.” A careful scholar of both “horizons,” Watkin guides us upstream from politics and culture wars. This isn’t just another survey or apologetic for a biblical worldview. Rather, Watkin provides a fascinating and bracing exploration of key points at which the biblical story calls into question fundamental preunderstandings we take for granted even before we “engage the culture.” Biblical Critical Theory doesn’t just give us answers; it helps us to come up with better questions. The components aren’t new, but the way he’s put it all together offers an innovative and immensely fruitful paradigm.”

“[Many of us find critical theory confusing, intimidating, or even suspect territory. Chris Watkin is well travelled in these places where many fear to tread, and you could not ask for a more affable or informed guide to show you around. Starting from the premise that the Bible offers the most expansive and generative account of reality, he engages both head and heart with humor and humility and maps out a path over some of the most fundamental impasses of our time. Urgent and weighty, Biblical Critical Theory is also, simply, a tremendously exciting read. Here is mastery— of an astonishing range of material— that, instead of asking the reader to strain and slog, brings the most complex ideas within reach and makes the whole thing feel like a glorious adventure.”

Watkin’s Biblical Critical Theory reveals how the whole of Scripture presents a lens through which we can— and should— see all of reality. It is an exercise in understanding “the now and the not yet.” Incisive, accessible, and astonishing in scope, this book is sure to be an immensely valuable Christian resource”

“Where was this book when I was floundering in a sea of humanities all those years ago? Christopher Watkin’s Biblical Critical Theory equips Christians to walk confidently as they appropriate and advance the ideas of our cultural milieu. Watkin will capture your intellect and imagination. This book is a must-read for all serious thinkers.”

“This is a brilliant and unique book. Inspired by Augustine’s City of God, Watkin has written a tour de force, diagonalizing a biblical path through rival narratives and ideologies. Biblical Critical Theory combines rich biblical theology with penetrating philosophical reflection; the result is a wonderful example of how cultural engagement should be done. It is the most biblical, up-to-date, and comprehensive analysis of contemporary Western culture that I know of. And to top it all off, Watkin can turn a phrase.”

“This book is a feast. Chris Watkin accomplishes what few have. He combines wide-ranging knowledge of resources with a lucid and accessible style. More important, he digs deep into critical thinking that is so necessary if we are to make sense of our times and speak the gospel into them. He avoids two pitfalls: (1) rejecting critical theory altogether, dubbing it Marxist and therefore offensive, and (2) accepting its insights without endorsing all its presuppositions. Refreshingly, Watkin opts for a third way, a more biblical one: criticism with hope. To substantiate this, he walks the reader through all the episodes of redemptive history, showing how at every point the Bible is “subversive” of the world’s ways, but always with faith. Though there is a good deal here, deep calls forth unto to deep, and I would urge readers to wrestle with the depth and develop their own applications of healthy criticism. The gospel is in this.”

“Christopher Watkin’s Biblical Critical Theory is an effervescently brilliant book, that rare volume that excels both in biblical and cultural exegesis. I was consistently challenged by Watkin’s arguments even— and especially— when I found myself disagreeing.”

“This is the best yet most accessible exploration of the intersection between Christianity, culture, and philosophy I've read in recent years. Christopher Watkin invites readers through a tour of the Bible’s philosophical depths and implications, while demonstrating persuasively that the Christian worldview subversively fulfills major philosophies, ancient and modern. Further, it applies the theology of neo-Calvinism for a contemporary audience. I can’t be more excited about Watkin’s work. Run, don’t walk, to get this book!”

“With astonishing breadth and depth, Biblical Critical Theory gives readers a fresh way of seeing the world, life, culture, and the Bible. Watkin’s scholarship is impressive, taking what is valuable and true wherever he finds it and making it accessible to the reader. I highly recommend this book for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of our time and culture.”

“Christopher Watkin’s expert, timely compendium of Christian Scripture’s subversive engagement of dominating themes of our modern age brings welcome healing to our world. Now may we live it!”

“Biblical Critical Theory is an ambitious, comprehensive, and thrilling work of Christian apologetics. Written by a scholar of French thought who has built his career not in the seminary but in secular institutions, this book moves well beyond a run-of-the-mill account of the West’s seminal thinkers. Rather, the intellectual architects of modernity are expounded by someone with a subtle, first-hand grasp of their power. The result is a rich, sympathetic, and critical engagement with the gospel’s most powerful rivals. Refusing to abstract a “biblical worldview” from the actual phenomenon of Scripture, Watkin tethers his material to the storyline of the Bible, engaging with Scripture’s own language and thought-forms. Armed with this dual-attentiveness to Scripture and contemporary thought, the result is a vast and breathtaking work of Christian cultural engagement. The book’s structural coherence and biblical-narrative approach makes a cover-to-cover read a rich experience. But having read it, it ought to stay on a shelf with other often-used reference books, within reach for anyone who wants to understand the Bible, contemporary culture, or the relation between the two. It is probably, in my opinion, the most significant work of its kind to appear in a decade.”

“For social scientists immersed in generations of challenging critical social theory, Watkin offers a magisterial alternative thoroughly grounded in the span of biblical literature and the Christian theological tradition into our present. The great master themes and battlegrounds of contemporary ideologies— power, conflict, domination, oppression, freedom, social change, civil society, political and social order, common good, inequality— come under searching critique, not least when they are on Watkin’s intimately familiar terrain of modern critical theory. A work of breathtaking scale, Biblical Critical Theory reveals the extraordinary singularity of the Bible as Watkin insistently expresses the magnificent radicalness of Christian thought. Refusing to be captured by simplifying dualities of contemporary discourse, this eloquently written work celebrates the symphony of biblical genres and the millennia of theological reflections that provide thoughtful Christians with a distinctive, powerful, and original critical armory that can reach all corners of our economic, political, legal, cultural, and social worlds. Inspired by the words of novelists and poets, ancient philosophy and literary critics, modern apologists and social observers, Watkin crafts a richly textured argument with dexterity and power. While no one will agree with everything, every careful reader will be rewarded from repeated immersions in this profound and potentially transformative work.”

“A wonderful book bringing the Scriptures— every part of them— into a deep and illuminating conversation with the concerns of culture. I learnt new things about both the Bible and the modern world in each of these twenty-eight fascinating chapters. I will be referencing this work (which is evangelist-speak for “ripping it off ”) for many years to come.”

“This is a remarkably important book that I wish could have been written thirty-five years ago when the church was struggling to make initial responses to the challenges of postmodernism and the wider, corrosive effects of deconstructionism and critical theory. Watkin both explains the Bible to secular culture and explains secular culture within the narrative framework of the Bible. In other words, he articulates (with a structure and tone not dissimilar to Augustine’s unrivaled City of God) a biblical social and cultural theory for our day that is enchanting and persuasive yet, at the same time, radical, challenging, and countercultural. The astonishing commitment to “diagonalize” competing insights of culture and Scripture is what makes this work so attractive, convincing, and valuable. Watkin, due to his fully orbed, biblical view of creation and culture, instinctively resists pietistic solutions that make no attempt to connect with experienced reality, but he also resists settling for a forced, and therefore temporary, relevance by simply pandering to current sensibilities around social justice, identity, power, and so on. The refusal to take those easy routes necessitates a longer and slightly more demanding treatment (though not as much as its length and headings suggest), but the rewards offered to patient readers are all the more delightful and important. The framework offered here will not only transform our ability to connect with and challenge prevailing secular mores, but it will also nourish us to the depths of our being as we appreciate the breadth, depth, and goodness of Christ’s Lordship in all of life. This is truly the book I have long wanted to read, and I believe it deserves to become a standard text for all Christian leaders, teachers, evangelists, and any serious-minded believer who wishes to out-love and out-think secular culture.”