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Peter Walker, Holy Land, Holy City: Sacred Geography and the Interpretation of the Bible. By Robert P. Gordon. Pp. xii + 162. Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 2004. isbn 1 84227 277 2. Paper n.p, The Journal of Theological Studies, Volume 56, Issue 2, October 2005, Pages 512–514, https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/fli120
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Extract
This short book is a delight and a joy to read. Bringing together the material of his Didsbury Lectures (2001), Gordon ranges judiciously over a wide range of issues relating to the land of the Bible—both as discussed within the biblical text and then in subsequent Jewish and Christian interpretation. Complex matters are touched on, often with insightful brevity, and with almost every paragraph readers may find themselves sent away with whole new insights to explore and ponder.
Particularly noteworthy is the wide range of topics with which Gordon is willing to engage. Although, as one would expect, there is a clear anchorage in his own discipline of Old Testament issues, the book continues into New Testament issues and then on into Christian history. Here is no ‘detached’ analysis of ancient biblical themes. Instead the author is well aware that his theme is the subject of lively debates not just in the academy, but also in the wider Church and the Middle East; and he himself seems equally at ease across the disciplines—whether discussing Jewish exegesis or church history ranging from the patristic period to nineteenth-century Scotland.
