Christianity for the Confused - The Old Testament: A brief overview

By Adam Boulter

The Old Testament or simply the Bible for Jews, is a key to understanding our world. It's stories, laws, and poetry have shaped the thinking of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Our languages themselves have been formed by it, and it's insights into the nature of reality and God, still powerfully speak to us today. This short introduction hopes to inspire you to read the Old Testament, and to think for yourself about what they might mean for you and your life.

These books have emerged over a decade of ministering, teaching and preaching all over the world. While running talks, discussion groups, and beginners theology classes, in London, Jordan, France and Madagascar, I came to realise that there is very little written about Christianity for the interested, thoughtful person with a busy life, and a multitude of other things to think about. This series hopes to add to that small but growing collection of books that seek to explain the Christian faith in a brief, intelligent, practical way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jun 20, 2024
• ISBN: 9781445291369

Book preview

Christianity for the Confused

- The Old Testament

A brief overview

(e-edition)

© 2024 Adam Boulter All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-4452-9136-9

Imprint: Lulu.com



About the Author

Born in 1971, Adam Boulter was educated in Fine Art before working as a painter specialising in religious commissions. He then studied theology at Cambridge University and was ordained as an Anglican clergyman into a south London parish in 2008. He worked as a chaplain in Jordan and France, and was then dean and principal of the Anglican Bible college in Toliara Madagascar. Currently, he paints and writes from France. His paintings can be seen on his website at: www.adamboulter.co.uk

Other Books in this Series

Key Ideas: an overview of Christian thoughts & beliefs

Christian Ethics: An overview of Christian virtue ethics

The Bible: An introduction to the Bible and how to read it

St Paul: His life, thought, and writings

The life of Christ: Jesus, his life, and his teachings

Acknowledgements

Thanks to my students and the other clergy and staff of St Patrick's Bible college in Toliara Madagascar where the ideas for these books took shape. Thanks to my tireless editor Terence Handley, you were a great encouragement and a sharp eye. To all my teachers and colleagues over the years, especially Professor Graham Davies, and Dr. Andrew Mein who taught me Old Testament in Cambridge. To my family for keeping me returning to this project and putting up with me stressing over minutiae of layout and theology.

Needless to say, any good ideas in these books are due to drawn from good teaching and reading, and any errors are entirely my own.

Introduction

Christianity for the Confused

These books have emerged over a decade of ministering, teaching and preaching all over the world. While running talks, discussion groups, and beginners theology classes, in London, Jordan, France and Madagascar, I came to realise that there is very little written about Christianity for the interested, thoughtful person with a busy life, and a multitude of other things to think about. This series hopes to add to that small but growing collection of books that seek to explain the Christian faith in a brief, intelligent, practical way.

How to use this Book

This book works well as a short course with a Bible study or Lent group, or you can simply work through it on your own. These books are short but much of their content takes time to really live through. Christianity, like all faiths, is not just a set of ideas, but a way of life. To really understand these concepts you need to take time to consider them deeply, to see if they match up to your lived experience. I have included some suggestions for activities, readings, and questions, that are intended to help you engage with this book. These often use visual art as a way of helping you engage creatively, they are not about making great art, but rather about helping you think in different ways. These are optional, only do them if you find them helpful. Biblical references are also included in brackets, using the standard abbreviations for the books of the Bible.

1: The Hebrew Bible

A strange text

The Bible is a strange kind of text: it is not one thing, but many, and it is not set out in the way you might assume. It is not that a Christian Bible starts with the most important parts for Christians. Those can be found towards the end of the Bible in the New Testament, which contains the stories of Jesus Christ’s life, death and resurrection, and the early letters of his followers. Instead, the Christian Bible starts with the ancient texts of the Jewish faith that Jesus followed and Christianity emerged out of. These are called the Old Testament. These