ABSTRACT
The point can be made that the canonical approach is by no means simply a return to the kind of biblical interpretation current before the rise of historical criticism, but depends on the critical method as a foil for its own proposals. The canonical approach begins with the need to formulate theological truth, and it asks how the Bible can be used in that context. Most Old Testament teachers in the twentieth century have been religious believers and they have seldom been uninterested in the possible religious meaning of the texts they have studied. In short, Christian theologians do have an obligation to take account of the Bible, because it is an acknowledged source of authority within Christianity. That does not mean, however, that everyone who studies the Bible has an obligation to help them by providing readings easily assimilated into a systematic theology.
