USEFUL TOOLS?
Add comments
Posted by
Andrew
We're coming towards the end of our series on how to read the Bible. This week we're looking at some simple rules when it comes to reading the Bible and in our final week were looking at some useful tools that will help with reading the Bible. In the final week on useful tools, I intend to simply wave some useful tools in front of our people that will help them read the Bible so that they don't have to read it cold. And I want to hear from them about some useful tools they've found useful as they've read their Bibles.
I limited myself to looking at local stores and libraries and the books/tools have to be easy to read. In search of some easy accessable tools that people can get their hands on I went our local Christian bookstore and our local library. At the local bookstore I found Fee and Stuart's How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth. This is a classic. I also found plenty of NT Wright's .... e.g. (Paul/Mark/Luke) For Everyone series. These are great! I also bought the IVP's New Bible Dictionary and The New Bible Commentary. I thought these would be good but they're a bit too scholarly for most Christians so I won't be recommending them. I also ordered The Learning Bible through our Christian bookstore after Real Live Preacher's recommendation.
I limited myself to looking at local stores and libraries and the books/tools have to be easy to read. In search of some easy accessable tools that people can get their hands on I went our local Christian bookstore and our local library. At the local bookstore I found Fee and Stuart's How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth. This is a classic. I also found plenty of NT Wright's .... e.g. (Paul/Mark/Luke) For Everyone series. These are great! I also bought the IVP's New Bible Dictionary and The New Bible Commentary. I thought these would be good but they're a bit too scholarly for most Christians so I won't be recommending them. I also ordered The Learning Bible through our Christian bookstore after Real Live Preacher's recommendation.
Then I visited our local library (not holding out too high of hopes). To my surprise the library has some great simple tools available. They have a copy of Eugene Peterson's Eat This Book! I'm loving that! They also had some of the Cambridge Companion series (companion to postmodern theology - I'm impressed) but they're not an easy read for most Christians. I gout out The Idiot's Guide to the Bible; The Bible Book; and the crowing find from the library The Bible Guide. The Bible Guide is a very accessable, readable book that combine good scholarship with a deep devotion - I love it and am going to get my own copy as it's so good and the author's theology seems close to mine. I'm going to try and have a look for The Bible for Dummies, I hear that it's also pretty good.
Does anyone have any simple, readable, accessable tools they'd recommend?
Update: Stephen G has recommended a more humourous help for Bible reading:
Richard Briggs, Be an Expert in 137 Minutes in Interpreting the Bible (Bletchley: Scripture Union, 1998). Have a read of the comments to follow the hermeneutical spiral!
Another hilarious book I've heard of from Real Live Preacher is:
Jason Boyett, Pocket Guide to the Bible. The video clip is well worth watching - v. funny
12:17 PM
If you're looking for books about the Bible and how to read it, rather than studying/reading particular bits of it (e.g with commentaries etc.) then try the following:
Richard Briggs' book "Be an Expert in 137 Minutes in Interpreting the Bible." (Bletchley: Scripture Union, 1998) is a fun read. Covers similar material to Fee and Stuart (e.g. genre) but in a more humorous way.
The opening chapter "Truth, context and other minor introductory issues" starts with: "God did not write the Bible in English, which most English people believe was just an oversight."
Also, there might be something in the Grove booklet series like "B40 What's the Bible All About? Understanding the Story of the Bible" by Ian Paul and Phil Jenson. (There's an eBook version too).
Lion Publishing also produce their range of handbooks (mostly in hardcover?) which includes "The Lion Handbook to the Bible" by David Alexander and Pat Alexander.
And Mike Riddell's "God's Home Page" from SPCK also offers the odd provocative point to get people understanding their own biases towards the Bible.
All(?) of these tend to avoid terms like "hermeneutical spiral", which just leave people dizzy. (In fact, the glossary in Briggs' little book says: "Hermeneutical circle - see hermeneutical spiral; Hermeneutical spiral - see hermeneutical circle." :-)
Why don't you make a resource page on the blog of your findings - like an annotated bibliography.
3:29 PM
"Hermeneutical circle - see hermeneutical spiral; Hermeneutical spiral - see hermeneutical circle." - hilarious! Must recommend that one! I'm after trustworthy, easy read books that help us to read scripture more faithfully so that we might follow Jesus more faithfully.
The idea of a resource page added to the blog is a good one except me and computers have the same sort of relationship as Brigg's hermeneutical cricles and spirals!
8:33 PM
Yo Andrew...I trust that the suggestions made are a bit more than skin deep and are of better quality than the tools you illustrated in your latest blog. I am deeply suspicious of sets of tools that come in plastic cases! I am enjoying the 'circle/spiral' theme.
2:57 PM
Hi Ian... I know the tools look cheesy don't they! But I thought Snap On tools might be a bit too top end. I'm a Koken man myself. Hopefully the Bible tools aren't quite as flimsy as my plastic tool kit!