In his book, Sekine, president of the Society of OT Studies in Japan, deals with two major topics. The first topic is indicated by the book's title: Sekine's work engages the reader in a reflection of the relations between the historical-critical scholarly interpretations of the OT and the philosophical processing of the Hebrew Bible. This topic is worked out in the first three parts of his book (part 1: ״The Old Testament and Philosophy," part 2: "Old Testament Thought and the Modern World," part 3: "The Prophets and Soteriology"). The second topic appears in an almost unexpected way in the last part of the book (part 4: "Old Testament Studies in Japan"). The preface of Sekine's work introduces it as a supplementary essay that draws on his presidential address given at the 77th anniversary of the Society of OT Studies in Japan in 2009. Here, Sekine gives an overview of the society's history and explores the challenges the society will have to meet if it wants to remain relevant.