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Reviewed by Jonathan D. Marlowe, pastor of Shiloh United Methodist Church in Granite Quarry, NC. Wondrous Depth: Preaching the Old Testament by Ellen Davis Ellen Davis’s book Wondrous Depths is an invitation to fall in love with the Old Testament. Through artistic commentary, careful attention to detail, and an uncompromising desire to know the God to whom the Old Testament bears witness, Davis woos preachers to take seriously their task of preaching the faith of ancient Israel, which has also graciously been given to the church of Jesus Christ. Resisting the temptation to keep a safe distance from the text, Davis invites us deeper into the mystery of our relationship with God as it is lived out in the faith community’s reading of Scripture. Wondrous Depths may have started out as a lecture series at Yale, but it reads more like a series of love letters, so intimate is the connection between the author and the text. She calls the preacher to share this holy intimacy with the congregation, and she provides several historical examples of preacher who did just that. Reading this book draws us into conversation with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, John Donne, and Lancelott Andrews, as we peek over their shoulders to watch them engage the Old Testament through sermon. Unlike some scholars of the Old Testa-ment, Davis does not hesitate to read and preach Israel’s scriptures christologically. The result is a rich homiletical offering of Israel’s faith as it is re-interpreted through the eyes of the church. Davis contends that the Bible, like any good piece of literature, has an abundance of meanings. This does not open up the door for arbitrary interpretations, but calls for “imaginative precision,” as the preacher reads the text with an eye towards its rich history of interpretation and its con-tinuing significance for the church today. Davis promises that “if you succeed in bringing forward the text week after week and letting it have its say, then part of the surprise will be that others listening with you will hear parts of its message that you have missed. When that happens, you will know that you have done well.” (p. 4). In this beautifully written volume, Davis discovers a multitude of such surprises, some of which appear in her own included sermons. Her Good Friday sermon on Psalm 22, for example, shows us the art of following the psalmist’s movements from anguish through to joy. Preachers are thus summoned to take up the joyful task of tracing the biblical authors faith and relating it liturgically to the church’s worship and life. Part of the joy in preaching comes from the will-ingness to put away our preconceived notions about what the text has always meant, so that we can be genuinely surprised by what it might say today. Like any good love letter, Davis’s meditations draw our attention away from themselves and to-wards the beloved. If there is any love poetry in the Bible, it must surely be in the psalms. Davis wisely suggests, “It is not possible to preach the psalms deeply and well unless you are also praying them regularly.” The preacher wrestles prayerfully with the text until it yields its blessing. Fortunately for the readers, Davis’s own insights emerge from her faithful struggles with the living Word that has captured her heart and would capture ours as well.
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