Thomas Renz

Revd Dr Thomas Renz

Lecturer in Old Testament and Biblical Hebrew

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Theological training is helping us to pay close attention to our triune God and our neighbour, by listening carefully to Scripture and to each other. We discern the needs to which Christ calls us to respond and develop skills to minister faithfully in His name. Theological training is thus a means of loving God and neighbour. "

Thomas grew up in south-west Germany. After a gap year in Israel he studied theology and pastoral studies at an independent college in Giessen where he met Gabriele, his future wife. They came to England in 1993 for Thomas to pursue doctoral studies under Professor Gordon Wenham for a University of Bristol PhD. His first permanent position was as Tutor in Old Testament and Hebrew at Oak Hill from 1997-2009. During this time Leah and Amos were added to the Renz household.

Thomas has been an active member of Lutheran, independent evangelical, and Anglican churches. He became a Reader at St Thomas Oakwood, regularly preaching and leading services, before he was put forward for ordination. He received his final pre-ordination training at the College of the Resurrection in Mirfield where he much appreciated its liturgical rhythm and its close link to the monastery. He served his title post at St Michael Highgate, before becoming the Rector of Monken Hadley in April 2012. In both places Thomas was closely engaged with primary schools. While in Monken Hadley Thomas also acted as a placement supervisor and a training incumbent and was involved in spiritual direction and in the Edmonton area’s selection process for ordination.

Thomas has been involved for several decades in pastoral care at all ages and theological education at all levels, including doctoral and post-doctoral. He has taught people across the various genres of the Old Testament and especially enjoys close work with the Hebrew text. His published research is focused on the prophetic literature.

Please find examples of Thomas' work linked below:

The Rhetorical Function of the Book of Ezekiel

Published by Brill in 1999 this work is based on Thomas's doctoral research and shows his desire to communicate in a clear and accessible way the results of a close and careful analysis of the biblical text in its original language and historical context. SBL produced a softcover edition in 2002. A thumbnail sketch of the thesis is found in Thomas's entry on Ezekiel in the Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible, to which he also contributed articles on Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah. Elsewhere Thomas has written on the Zion tradition in Ezekiel and on Ezekiel's prophecies concerning Tyre.

Brill, 1999

Books of Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah

The making of this commentary, which took over twenty years, drew in several generations of Oak Hill students who studied the Hebrew text of Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah with Thomas and explored their message and theological implications. The research not only involved the analysis of highly technical material which led to the publication of a number of academic essays and a short book on prophetic poetry but also sermon series in different churches, Lenten lectures for Churches Together in Chipping Barnet, presentations to clergy meetings and a study day for lay preachers on Habakkuk. About half of the writing was done when Thomas was first at Oak Hill, half while he was in parish ministry.

Eerdmans, 2021

The Book of the Twelve: An Anthology of Prophetic Books or The Result of Complex Redactional Processes?

The question in the subtitle has been much debated in the last few decades within academic biblical scholarship. Thomas supervised an impressive Oak Hill College Masters thesis which argued for a stronger unity of the book (later published in Ecclesia Reformanda) but his own research suggests only limited stitching together of the individual writing within the anthology. In the essay published in this volume he examines the relationship of Habakkuk to its co-texts, arguing that there is no real evidence to suggest later editorial efforts to tie the writings closer together. In 2021 Thomas first taught a class in Addis Ababa on all of the Minor Prophets and he is likely to reflect further on these writings in his spare time.

V&R Unipress, 2017

Reading the Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets

Thomas contributed an essay on Luther's reading of Habakkuk to this volume which reflects his interest in the history of interpretation. His own training had been in grammatical-historical exegesis which he had developed into a rhetorical-communicative approach in his doctoral work. But he has become convinced that this does not sufficiently take into account the nature of the Bible as God's Word and the fact that the biblical text testifies to realities in which we ourselves may participate. Reading biblical texts in community is one way in which we may learn to develop a broader vision.

Faithlife, 2022