Partnership in the Gospel: Seven Exercises in Liberal Biblical Theology

Many of our current, lasting controversies in American Christianity are due, in part, to the willingness of liberals to champion reason and experience while leaving Scripture and tradition to conservatives, and vice versa. The liberal biblical theological voice, once quite strong, has fallen silent.

Grounded in a solid knowledge of biblical study, Partnership in the Gospel presents a series of exercises, or angles of perspective, intended to support the rigorous consideration of biblical theological perspective that preachers, teachers, and lay leaders need. This work draws from a range of scholarly, theological, and everyday voices, and with kindred works of poetry, art, music, and literature, to explore the Bible’s unifying themes through “partnerships” of perspective. Each chapter offers an exercise that integrates Scripture, experience, tradition, and reason—the four sides of John Wesley’s “Quadrilateral”—as the means by which to engage with the gospel and appreciate a liberal biblical theology.

Robert Allan Hill is the dean of Marsh Chapel, a professor of New Testament and pastoral theology at Boston University, and the author of seventeen books. Since 1981, he has taught at institutions including McGill University, Syracuse University, Lemoyne College, Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, Northeastern Seminary, United Seminary, and in various church settings. His weekly sermon can be heard live at Marsh Chapel on Sundays at 11 a.m. ET, and around the globe at bu.edu/chapel.