"This work is a profound contribution to a biblical understanding of God. The essays have an inner coherence drawn on the basis of the whole scripture. Readers will certainly benefit from both the content and linguistic construction of the book []."
Svetlana Khobnya in Journal for the Study of the New Testament 34(5) (2012), p.3-4

Focusing on the history of religion, the authors explore the Old and New Testaments in order to ascertain which basic knowledge is imparted about God as "the One who loves us." The dialogue between Old and New Testament experts results in a biblical theology which traces the theological topoi in their historical development and at the same time puts them in the order of their factually based importance as well as their logical context.

"This work is the rigorous implementation of an insight that is beautiful in its simplicity and its fertility - namely, and I quote, that the "fundamental, without which God would not be God, is his specific desire for relationship with human beings and the world." [...] I applaud this foundational restraint on their part, and I stand in awe of the enormous edifice that they erect upon this idea as foundation."
Jack Miles, Pulitzer Prize winner

"This work is a profound contribution to a biblical understanding of God. The essays have an inner coherence drawn on the basis of the whole scripture. Readers will certainly benefit from both the content and linguistic construction of the book []."
Svetlana Khobnya in Journal for the Study of the New Testament 34(5) (2012), p.3-4

Autorentext
Geboren 1950; 1969-75 Studium der Ev. Theologie und Altorientalistik in Münster und Göttingen; 1982 Promotion; 1987 Habilitation; 1989-92 Professor für Altes Testament und altorientalische Religionsgeschichte in Zürich; 1992-99 in Hamburg; 1999-2018 Inhaber des Lehrstuhls für Altes Testament in Göttingen.