'The religious experience without the vision of History would be empty, the historical event without the religious experience, blind.' In this book Professor Christopher North accepts Robert Winkler's statement, and treats 'event' and 'idea' as necessarily linked in any true interpretation of Old Testament history. He outlines 'the several stages in the Hebrew interpretation of history and considers whether that interpretation . . . was altogether or approximately true, and whether the actual course of Hebrew history . . . warrants us in believing . . . that there was a special providence and purpose in God's dealings with Israel.'