Approaching The Bible As Literature

What do you think the Bible says? How does the way the Bible is written affect its meaning? Here is a concise introduction that invites you to interact with the primary text. Interspersed with brief explanations of biblical background and writing techniques are thought-provoking questions about specific readings with space provided for response. This user-engaging approach is enhanced by its sensitivity to readers across the spectrum of belief, from atheist to devout believer. So whether you come to the subject to satisfy historical interest or to appreciate the artistry of Scripture, Approaching the Bible as Literature will deepen your understanding.

"Reading the Bible as Literature provides the ideal entry-point to the process of reading, understanding, and assessing what many recognize to be the important and powerful literature of the Bible. Such reading holds potential for helping students understand literature generally and the Bible in itself. The book introduces the tools of literary analysis, including: language and style, the formal structures of genre (narrative, drama, and poetry), character study, and thematic analysis. The book emphasizes the act of reading itself, focusing upon the whole text as it exists in its current form. It invites an experiential entering into and reliving of the Bible's stories, encourages analytical and holistic reading, explores multiple interpretations, and embraces a power of language originating in the mythological, metaphorical, and symbolic. Above all, the book seeks to return the Bible to the common reader and to build in that reader an appreciation for a collection of ancient, literary texts often trivialized by competing theologies or marginalized by a relentless insistence upon fact, science, and history." -- Back cover.

Why the Good Book Is a Great Read If you want to rightly understand the Bible, you must begin by recognizing what it is: a composite of literary styles. It is meant to be read, not just interpreted. The Bible’s truths are embedded like jewels in the rich strata of story and poetry, metaphor and proverb, parable and letter, satire and symbolism. Paying attention to the literary form of a passage will help you understand the meaning and truth of that passage. How to Read the Bible as Literature takes you through the various literary forms used by the biblical authors. This book will help you read the Bible with renewed appreciation and excitement and gain a more profound grasp of its truths. Designed for maximum clarity and usefulness, How to Read the Bible as Literature includes * sidebar captions to enhance organization * wide margins ideal for note taking * suggestions for further reading * appendix: "The Allegorical Nature of the Parables" * indexes of persons and subjects

Many Christians view the Bible as an instruction manual. While the Bible does provide instruction, it can also captivate, comfort, delight, shock, and inspire. In short, it elicits emotion--just like poetry. By learning to read and love poetry, says literature professor Matthew Mullins, readers can increase their understanding of the biblical text and learn to love God's Word more. Each chapter includes exercises and questions designed to help readers put the book's principles and practices into action.

Authors Gabel and Wheeler approach the Bible from a literary/historical perspective, and study the work as a body of writing produced by real human beings who intended to convey messages to real readers. Avoiding assessments of the Bible's truth or authority, the book maintains a rigorously objective tone as it discusses such major issues as the forms and strategies of biblical writing, the actual historical and physical settings of that writing, the process of canon formation, the sources of the Pentaeuch, and the nature of such biblical literary genres as prophecy, apocalypse, and gospel. Each chapter is an independent yet related essay, designed to allow instructors maximum flexibility in using the text. The result is an easy-to-use, exciting presentation of the art of the Bible that is very accesible to students.

Historians have credited--or blamed--Calvinism for many developments in the modern world, including capitalism, modern science, secularization, democracy, individualism, and unitarianism. These same historians, however, have largely ignored John Calvin the man. When people consider him at all, they tend to view him as little more than the joyless tyrant of Geneva who created an abstract theology as forbidding as himself. This volume, written by the eminent historian William J. Bouwsma, who has devoted his career to exploring the larger patterns of early modern European history, seeks to redress these common misconceptions of Calvin by placing him back in the proper historical context of his time. Eloquently depicting Calvin's life as a French exile, a humanist in the tradition of Erasmus, and a man unusually sensitive to the complexities and contradictions of later Renaissance culture, Bouwsma reveals a surprisingly human, plausible, ecumenical, and often sympathetic Calvin. John Calvin offers a brilliant reassessment not only of Calvin but also of the Reformation and its relationship to the movements of the Renaissance.

Edited by Bruce Manning Metzger and Roland E. Murphy Detailed, updated annotations Extensive essays and book introductions Textual notes Larger pages with wide margins 36 pages of full-color maps with index Essay by Metzger on how to use "Annotated" Bible Smyth-sewn 7 X 9 1/4 % Font size: 9

Literary approaches to the Bible systematically presents the different ways of analyzing the text within its literary context. Highlighted sections and annotated bibliographies in each chapter create ease for reading and give a path for further study. -- from back cover resources.