Goldsworthy's goal in writing this book, and concerning much of his life's mission, is plain: to make Christ known. To that end he provides the foundations (along with the presuppositions) of evangelical beliefs as they apply to the interpretations of the biblical texts. Going beyond that, he selectively elucidates important hermeneutical influences as a means of identifying some influential characteristics alien to the Gospel but present in some hermeneutical thought. The summation, then, is in his reconstruction of true hermeneutics, building on the aforementioned foundations and avoiding those negative 'alien' divergences.
Commending the role of theology in hermeneutical practice is part and parcel for Goldsworthy (The Goldsworthy Trilogy), and he makes great strides in showing how the method of theology provides a basic tool in biblical research while facilitating the comprehension of biblical unity (Old and New Testaments) corresponding to the person and work of Jesus. As a baseline and unifying vision for the piece, pastoral matters predominantly guide the conclusions, although this choice does not subtract from the readability of the work as a whole.
