Living By the Book: The Art and Science of Reading the Bible [Paperback]

Howard Hendricks (Author), William Hendricks (Author), Howard G. G. Hendricks (Author), William D. D. Hendricks (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2007

For every person who draws strength and direction from the Bible, there are many more who struggle with it. Some call it a long book with fine print and obscure meaning. Some call it a mystery. A chore to read. An undecipherable puzzle.The good news is you can easily solve this problem. With over 300,000 sold, this revised and expanded edition of Living by the Book will remove the barriers that keep Scripture from transforming your life. In a simple, step-by-step fashion, the authors explain how to glean truth from Scripture. It is practical, readable, and applicable. By following its easy-to-apply principles, you'll soon find yourself drawing great nourishment from the Word--and enjoying the process! The Living by the Book Workbook is the perfect compliment to provide practical application of lessons.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

The adventure of your life awaits!

 

With this classic book, recently update and expanded, Howard and Bill Hendricks invite you on one of the greatest adventures of your life—the journey through Scripture. In the Bible you can interact with a living God who wants a personal relationship with you. And no special skills are needed. If you can read, you can glean important insight from Scripture.

 

Living by the Book will help you engage God’s Word like never before. In simple step-by-step fashion, you’ll learn how to:

 

Observe. Let Scripture speak to you individually.

 

Interpret. Develop the tools to properly understand biblical text.

 

Apply. Learn how to allow Scripture to transform your life.

 

Start your journey today.

About the Author

HOWARD HENDRICKS (B.A., Wheaton College; Th.M., Dallas Theological Seminary; D.D., Wheaton College) is a distinguished professor, lecturer, and Chairman of the Center for Christian Leadership at Dallas Theological Seminary. He is the author of numerous books including Living by the Book. His work has been widely published in various periodicals such as Decision, Moody, and Christianity Today. He and his wife, Jeanne, have three grown children.

WILLIAM D. HENDRICKS (A.B., Harvard University; M.A., Boston University; M.A., Dallas Theological Seminary) is president of The Hendricks Group, a Dallas-based company that champions the phenomenon of giftedness and its best use by individuals, teams, and organizations. Bill is the author or co-author of numerous books, including The Light That Never Dies: A Story of Hope in the Shadows of Grief, The Power of Uniqueness, Your Work Matters to God, and Living By the Book. His writings have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Dallas Morning News, Christianity Today and numerous other publications. He is the proud father of three daughters by his late wife, Nancy.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Moody Publishers; New Edition edition (January 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802408230
• ISBN-13: 978-0802408235
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (65 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,755 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Workbook for "The Book", January 15, 2001

By 

Rob Taylor "robtaylormade" (Raleigh, NC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Living By The Book (Paperback)

If you've ever had an excuse for not getting into the Word, this book is for you. Howard Hendricks who chairs the Center for Christian Leadership (affectionately know as "Prof." to his students at Dallas Theological Seminary) with the aid of his son Bill, has written this phenomenal book on the "why" and "how" of Bible study.

In the first few chapters, Hendricks challenges all the excuses we have for not studying our Bibles and posits clearly superior reasons in favor of doing so. He then uses Scripture itself to show us what we will gain from regular study of God's Word. In typical Hendricks fashion he begins by humoring "I wish we had a better term than `Bible study,' because for most of us, `study' is a bad news item. It has all the appeal of flossing our teeth" (13). He tells the story of a man he met at a Bible conference who drove twelve hundred miles to "get under the Word" and Hendricks muses "was he just as willing to walk across his living room floor, pick up a Bible, and get into it for himself?" (9).

There are three steps, which will transform that sometimes-dry text into the spiritual growth that we desire in our lives. They are Observation, Interpretation and Application. These three steps are the heart of the book.

The ability of Howard Hendricks to communicate clearly and effectively is unmatched in this introductory work on Bible study. The pages of this book come alive as he swiftly and painlessly removes the obstacles to personal study while at the same time equipping the reader with the proper tools to understand God's Word. Virtually every chapter contains exercises for the student of Scripture to get hands-on experience instead of just theoretical book knowledge. Much of this book is essentially the application of Mortimer Adler's book, How to Read a Book, (which Hendricks highly acclaims) to the Bible. The anecdotes, illustrations and "quotables" are alone worth the price of the book, not to mention the enlightening elaboration of the three-step approach to Bible study. This book should be the absolute first book a new Christian reads apart from the Bible itself.

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Helps beginners have quality Bible study, November 30, 2004

By 

Roy Massie (Birmingham, AL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Living By The Book (Paperback)

This is an easy reading book, in 45 fun little chapters, to help people gain the basic Biblical interpretation skills they need to transform their lives. The Hendricks' show us how proper interpretation of scripture is used to fuel our minds for improved prayer/meditation based on God's principles. These principles are to be applied in our daily lives to change us and consequently change our corner of the world. The overall approach is the same used by most Bible study methods; that is, "inductive" Bible study - observe, interpret, apply.

The authors stress honest observation of the Biblical text without the influence of a pretense or agenda to affect the interpretation. An extremely detailed and systematic observation of the text being studied is stressed as the most crucial aspect of interpretation. Proper interpretation is unlikely without the foundation of an extremely thorough observation of the text itself. About half the book is used to fully explore the questions and forms of textual observation.

The book is loaded with practical ways to assist in interpretation during your Bible study. For example, transporting your senses into the story to help relate to David in a cave or Paul in prison. Clever tools like the fingers of your hand can be used to remember 5 things to look for when interpreting a passage. Another easy-to-remember idea is to ask the 6 w's - who, what, where, when, why and wherefore (wherefore is the "so what?" part of life application).

The authors encourage the application of Biblical principles in our lives. The final section of the book presents a set of questions and motivations for applying the Bible in everyday life. There are many lists to derive life application points: is there a command to obey, an example to follow, a doctrine to be believed, etc.? A recurring theme is the Biblical understanding of Godly knowledge that is summarized as `knowing without doing isn't knowing at all.'

I like this book overall but there are a few things I don't care for. I think it is too long and redundant on some points. 150 pages on every conceivable aspect/permutation of observing a text is excessive. Chapter 7, for example, talks about general reading skills. This is good information to mention but I don't think it deserved a chapter. You can get value from the book by selectively reading most of the chapters and omitting some like 7,13,14,20 (about 7% of the book). This is definitely not the author's intent, but it is how I recommend the book to people who don't have much reading time.

Another way to improve this book would be more coverage about literary genre (parable, poetry, history, letter, etc.). Chapter 29 covers this somewhat, but with a book this size, I would expect more on this important area for interpreting a text. How To Read the Bible for All its Worth, (Fee) and Effective Bible Teaching (Wilhoit) cover genre very well and are better choices if you don't need something as basic as "Living by the Book".

Living by the Book is a good choice for adult beginners, including high school students, to get started into productive Bible study.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read, February 22, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Living By The Book (Paperback)

Not only is the method subscribed by this book useful in getting out of the Bible that which was intended, but if the first couple chapters don't get you downright excited about a study of the Word of God, then nothing will. This book will light a fire of desire to search, and find, ALL of God's Word.