Tota Scriptura: Chapter Outline
July 24, 2025
Craig Bartholomew’s ambitious four-volume project, Old Testament Origins and the Question of God, seeks to explore what happens to Old Testament studies if we take God and his action in the world seriously. Toward this end, he proposes a post-critical paradigm shift that recenters study around God. The second volume of this series focuses on Moses and the Exodus, and KLC’s project is exploring multiple avenues by which the impact of this topic can be felt in the church.
Primary Discipline(s): Theology, Biblical Studies
Base Community: Staff
Leader: Craig Bartholomew
Primary Author(s): Craig Bartholomew
Collaborators: tba
Acknowledgements: tba
Partner Organisations: A publisher is attached.
Funding: None
Problem: tba
Process: tba
Aims and Outcomes: tba
Coming soon…
Read about the proposed chapter outline and discussion topics that we plan to address in this book. There are specific areas where community expertise and advice could be especially helpful (see “Collaboration Opportunities”) and this contents page may help to clarify what kind of help we’re after.
KLC has been instrumental in facilitating links with a top publishing outlet, and as a result of the generosity of our academic fellows, who read and interacted with the very lengthy proposal document, their motivations helped to secure a publishing contract.
If you have something to contribute to the following questions, email your thoughts to tota@kirbylaingcentre.co.uk.
When the team has a need for help or an area in which collaboration could be beneficial, their requests will be listed here.
Your contributions are greatly appreciated and are integral to our vision of collaborative, interdisciplinary research. We endeavor to acknowledge all the efforts of our collaborators and to give due credit, but note that we can’t guarantee that any contribution will be used in the final product.
Do you have access to any essential journal articles on evangelicalism, evangelical hermeneutics/theology, the approach to politics/ethics, deconstruction etc. that you could send? I have plenty to read (!) but it would be good to know if there are any recent, must-read pieces on these topics. I do not have ATLA access at present.
While none of us is ever able to speak reliably for whole communities of believers, this research is interested in how evangelicalism is perceived outside of the picture in US media. What does it mean to be an evangelical outside of US conservatism? In other parts of the world? To what degree is your corner of evangelicalism affected by the politicization of US evangelicalism?
At this stage, anecdotal opinions are welcome, but I wouldn’t want anyone to generate fresh research on these topics; it is too early to know to what degree I will be using them. However, if you have existing publications or your own research that you are willing to share, it would be appreciated (and your research would be credited).
This does not intend to drag us all into controversy, but I know that many of us have experienced deeply negative aspects of evangelical theology or practice that either have caused us to leave or to consider leaving evangelicalism (or even Christianity itself).
Most of us rightly choose not to air these grievances publicly because we don’t wish to do reputational damage to the wider kingdom of God. This book likewise is not aimed at causing more harm. However, in the interests of taking seriously that the church may teach or do things that provoke crises of faith, I would like to publish anecdotes that illustrate problems with the modern movement.
If you have a story to tell, it should ideally be something that (a) is at least partly attributable to a feature of evangelicalism (rather than, say, the evil actions of a lone wolf among the sheep); (b) you are willing to have published; and (c) will not expose us to legal action.
When the team produces research components and additional resources that may be of public interest, these will be made available here.
