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 judgment 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.