The Good Book: Reading the Bible With Mind and Heart [Hardcover]

Peter J. Gomes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 7, 1996

"The Good Book" is a brilliant and inspiring look at the Bible today from the preacher to Harvard University, a man Time magazine called one of the seven best preachers in America. "The theme of this book, " writes Peter Gomes in his introduction, "is the risk and the joy of the Bible: risk in that we might get it wrong, and joy in the discovery of the living Word becoming flesh. It is around this theme that I formulate three basic questions which the thoughtful reader brings to the Bible: What is it? How is it used? What does it have to say to me?" With compassion, humor, and insight, Gomes gives us the tools we need to make the Bible a dynamic part of our daily lives - and reminds us that the Bible is not just doctrine and interpretation, but one of the most available and extraordinary means by which we are brought into proximity with the divine.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Biblical studies have historically been consigned to theological schools and church groups. In The Good Book, Peter Gomes, pastor of Harvard University's Memorial Church and a professor of theology, has written a vivid, common sense and wise analysis of what the Bible means for us today. As an African American gay man, Gomes is interested in re-viewing the biblical passages on sexuality and race, but The Good Book is much more than a revisionist look at controversial biblical passages. Gomes is interested in rediscovering how the Bible can find a place in our emotional and political lives, as well as in our religious beliefs.

From Publishers Weekly

Gomes, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard and longtime pastor of Memorial Church there, has been cited by Time as one of the seven best preachers in America. He laments, however, that he and his fellow ministers across the nation "preach regularly from the Bible to congregations that know so little about it," despite the outpouring of biblical translations, exegetical books and other analytical aids. His mission in this cogent exercise in nonsectarian Christian apologetics is to help reverse the current decline in biblical literacy by reclaiming the Bible from theological stodginess and lay laziness. The book is divided into three parts called "Opening the Bible," "The Use and Abuse of the Bible" and "The True and Lively Word," which refer, respectively, to didactic, polemical and pastoral approaches. The unified result masterfully clarifies what the Bible really says about homosexuality (very little), women as full faith partners (much more), racial harmony (lots, both explicitly and implicitly) and anti-Semitism ("Christianity's Original Sin"). But, whatever the subject, Gomes wants Bible readers to think about intrinsic meanings in Old and New Testament scripture.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1st edition (November 7, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688134475
• ISBN-13: 978-0688134471
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #280,633 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book for thinking Christians, February 16, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart (Paperback)

I tend to like books whose ratings vacillate between five stars and one. Clearly some readers get it and some don't.

The Bible has been used for centuries as an excuse for slavery, for bigotry, for war, for torture, for anti-Semitism, for homophobia, and for misogyny. It has been used as a crutch for those emotionally immature enough to need to feel right and morally superior. The people who would use the Bible in this way--and they continue to flourish and proliferate--will probably have little use for Gomes's impressive volume, and so be it. For the rest of us, however, The Good Book is worthwhile and enriching. It illuminates the Bible for both the veteran churchgoer and the uninitiated. In teaching Sunday school and Confirmation classes for the Episcopal Church and in delivering funeral and wedding sermons, I have drawn on Gomes's book again and again to help convey the Christian message.

Anyone interested in reading the Bible with "mind and heart" will find The Good Book to be a good read.

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Courageous Message of Peace and Love, July 29, 1998

By 

Jeff Fields [e-mail] (Los Angeles, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart (Paperback)

My wife read this book aloud to me cover to cover on our commutes to church. She bought it because she is black and an Episcopalian and wanted to see what a black Episcopalian bishop had to say about the Bible. We found Gomes writing to be clear, well reasoned, and very non judgemental.

My wife knows many Jews and got a lot out of the chapter that refuted Biblical arguments for Anti-Semitism, as did I. We especially got a lot out of the chapter on the refutation of Biblical justifications for slavery, as I am white, and our marriage would have been illegal 50 years ago in many states. We found Gomes rebuttal of the sinfulness of homosexuality to be very balanced and informed and were a little surprised when he bravely admits to being gay.

Overall, The Good Book opened our eyes to the fact that the Bible is a great source of understanding God as a peaceful and loving God. We are no longer scared of reading the Bible anymore.

46 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Imperfect, but how could it not be?, September 19, 1999

By 

Helpful Reviewer (Virginia USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Good Book: Reading the Bible With Mind and Heart (Hardcover)

Those who have never had the unique privilege of hearing Rev. Gomes preach will most enjoy and benefit from this book, for the book memorializes the singular virtues of his ministry: his delightful use of language, the great clarity of his thinking, the openness of his mind, and his general resistance to ideology and dogma. As a book targeted to a general audience, it is not as comprehensive nor as successful at handling intellectual complexities and contradictions as a more scholarly tome might be. Too often, Rev. Gomes makes interpretive leaps which are perhaps not supported adequately by his arguments and marshalling of evidence. However, it must be said that any book of this ilk would necessarily be guilty of similar "sins." In any event, Rev. Gomes does not intend for his book to be yet another addition to the library of general Biblical scholarship. Instead, he succeeds at his primary objective, which is to breathe life into the reader's relationship with the book and to rescue the Bible from individuals on points of the political spectrum who brazenly manipulate its complex and elusive message to support their own particular points of view. A thought-provoking and surprisingly easy read.