Synopsis: McConville re-evaluates the way in which Deuteronomic theology is understood in modern Old Testament research by arguing that Deuteronomy is an early and formative factor in the development of Old Testament religion.

Description: The book of Deuteronomy is one of the great theological documents of the Bible. The main lines of its thought can be traced not only in the book itself, but throughout the Old Testament, especially in the historical books from Joshua to 2 Kings—hence the term "Deuteronomic theology." In this book, the first in a series on Studies in the Old Testament Biblical Theology, McConville surveys and evaluates both older and more recent scholarly approaches to Deuteronomic theology. He shows how Israel persistently failed to keep God's covenant by rejecting him and relying on themselves instead. For that reason, God consistently brought his judgement on them, but that was not his final word to them. They survived as a nation only because of God's overpowering grace; there is grace in history in the end.