Who Needs the Old Testament?: Its Enduring Appeal and Why the New Atheists Don't Get it

Who needs the Old Testament?

It might be a literary classic, but what relevance does it have today?

How much of it can we believe anyway?

Katharine Dell invites you to rediscover the appeal of the Old Testament for the twenty-first century. In doing so she deftly refutes hard-line attacks by writers such as Richard Dawkins; she firmly critiques the atheistic agenda of those scholars who seek to undermine the Old Testament's historical grounding; and she helpfully reassures those within the church who express doubts about its usefulness as a resource for Christian life and thought.

Written by a world expert, this book will help many, both inside and outside the church, to gain a more informed appreciation of the different kinds of literature contained in the Old Testament, and a more nuanced understanding of the developing vision of God to which they witness.

Katharine Dell is Reader in Old Testament Literature and Theology, and Fellow, Tutor and Director of Studies in Theology and Religious Studies at St Catharine's College, Cambridge. A world expert on the Wisdom literature of the Old Testament, her most recent books include Ethical and Unethical in the Old Testament (T&T Clark 2010), Opening the Old Testament (Wiley-Blackwell 2008) and The Book of Proverbs in Social and Theological Context (CUP 2006).