Thanks for your interest in my book, Dee! I’m putting your questions in bold for context, and my attempts to answer them follow.

Can you summarize briefly the main idea of the book? 

The main theme of the Bible is that everything exists to demonstrate the glory of God in his justice and mercy.

I go book by book through the whole Bible trying to show that this arises from the texts themselves (that is, I’m not foisting it on the texts from the outside). I’m trying to show that the biblical authors each had the glory of God, seen most clearly when he saves through judgment, at the center of their theology.

Why did you write it? 

Because God is glorious! Because he is worthy of praise. Because I love God and love God's people. Because I want to do what I can to help God's people understand God's word.

Trying to follow Paul as he follows Christ, I found myself “provoked in my spirit” as I wandered through the academic discussion of the center of biblical theology. Lots of Christians through the years have celebrated God’s glory, but when I started this trek I was surprised to find that among biblical theologians God’s glory hadn’t been put forward as central.

Some will object that the idea of God’s glory is too broad to help us understand the actual contents of the Bible, so I’m trying to narrow in on the glory of God in the display of his justice and his mercy. That is, I’m saying that while God shows his glory in creation, for instance, the biblical authors insist that creation exists as a cosmic theater for something else to be enacted on its stage. What God wants to display on the stage of this theater is the absolute character of his glorious righteousness, and that display serves to make his stunning mercy all the more beautiful. I’m trying to capture the way that God highlights his mercy through the display of justice with the phrase, God’s glory in salvation through judgment.

God’s glory in salvation through judgment is supremely displayed in the cross of Christ, where justice and mercy meet, where righteousness and peace kiss, where God’s infinite holiness and everlasting love are displayed on the cosmic stage at the hinge of history. This righteousness and mercy calls us to repent, trust, bow, and worship.

Do you think pastors shy away from preaching on judgment, and if so, what words of advise would you give them? 

If there is no judgment, there is no mercy. If no one is ever punished for their wrongdoing, then mercy ceases to be mercy and becomes nothing more than injustice. God wants us to know him as a God who is capable of somehow maintaining justice and righteousness even as he forgives sin.

If God does not judge, he does not keep his word and we cannot trust him. A god who does not keep his word is not worthy of worship.

A God who keeps his word and finds a way to forgive sin and show mercy to the guilty, that is a God who is worthy of worship.

Systematic Theology is more commonly taught in the US.  You are a professor of biblical theology....can you define biblical theology and then tell us why pastors should care about it?

There are a lot of different ways to define biblical theology. In God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment, I “pursue a biblical theology that highlights the central theme of God’s glory in salvation through judgment by describing the literary contours of individual books in canonical context with sensitivity to the unfolding meta-narrative” (44).

I think that pastors should care about “the unfolding meta-narrative” because this is the Bible’s big story in which the smaller stories fit and to which they contribute. If we’re going to understand the significance of Abraham or Ruth or Esther or Jesus, we have to understand them in the context of the big story the Bible is telling.

This is also what I’m getting at with words like “canonical context.” I think that in order to understand Proverbs and the Song of Songs, we have to read these books in light of the Law and the Prophets. The Law commands Israel’s king to be a man of the Torah in Deuteronomy 17, and in the Prophets the promise is made that a scion of David will be king in 2 Samuel 7. I think these things should inform our interpretation of Proverbs and the Song.

And when I speak of “literary contours,” what I’m getting at is the different kinds of literature we find in the Bible: law, narrative, prophecy, apocalyptic, poetry, and letters that are both personal and public. In order to interpret these things correctly we have to understand how the different kinds of literature function.

How did writing this book strengthen your relationship with God?

I loved working on this project because it required me to spend so much time in the whole Bible. God reveals himself in the Bible, so I think that spending a lot of time in the Bible amounts to spending a lot of time with God. Relationships are strengthened as we spend time with others, unless we misunderstand them or rebel against them. I’m doing my best to understand the whole Bible and submit to the one who speaks through it. I don’t know of anything better for one’s relationship with God.

I am so thankful for the Bible. I’m astonished that God would be merciful to me, and I pray that this book will help others worship God for his mercy.

What are you planning to write next?  

On January 1, 2011, my Preaching the Word commentary on Revelation is due to Crossway. Thankfully, it’s done. Lord willing, my next project is a book for the New Studies in Biblical Theology on The Theology of Daniel. I would be grateful for any and all prayers offered on my behalf, that God would enable me to write and think as I should.

Thanks again, Dee!