According to Walter Kaiser, a gap exists in the academic preparation of ministers. "It is the gap between the study of the biblical text (most frequently in the original languages) and the actual delivery of messages to God’s people. Very few centers of biblical and homiletical training have ever taken the time or effort to show the student how one moves from analyzing the text to constructing a sermon that reflects and is dependent on that analysis."

The author intends to bridge this gap with Toward an Exegetical Theology. He proposes a syntactical-theological method of exegesis consisting of the following steps: (1) contextual analysis, (2) syntactical analysis, (3) verbal analysis, (4) theological analysis, and (5) homiletical analysis.