Customer Reviews

Opening the Bible

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This book gives an excellent frame of reference with which to read the Bible. Merton clearly addresses what the Bible is and what it is not, what to expect and what not to expect. This book prompts the reader to examine their own life and purposes; it calls on the reader to have a personal relationship with the Word of God. It cautions the reader who reads with a proscribed agenda and begs each individual to set aside their own preconceived ideas and let the Bible speak to them in its own way.

Merton wholehearedly accepts that fact that the Bible can be shocking, boring, questioning, and tedious. But at the same time he doesn't want us to simply disregard that which doesn't make sense to us in one momentary reading. Instead he wants us to accept the Bible in its wholeness even though we may not understand all of it at once.

He further asserts that "the Bible is a 'worldly' book in the sense that it sees God at the very center of man's life, his work, his relations with his fellow man, his love of his wife and children, his play and his joy." He continually reiterates that the central message in the Bible is one of unity, reconciliation and wholeness.

Altogether, this outstanding book can help open your mind and give you a proper frame of reference for reading the Bible.

Introduces the Bible as more of a spiritual tool to be used as an encounter with God, rather than a literary work full of facts and suppositions. Reminds us of the purpose of God's Word, as expressed in the Scriptures.

Merton's Classic opens one to the Word and its uses not only in our prayer life, but our daily lives as well. This well written treatise calls one to question their lives and to read God's Word more frequently.

"Opening the Bible" was a project that Thomas Merton undertook with the intention that it would become an introduction to a publication of the Bible by Time-Life. While the deal fell though, Merton continue to work on the project with this being the final result.

In the scope of Merton's writing, it is easy to overlook this one. In nature, this essay presents a series of open ended questions but never gives a defintive answer. Like the Bible, "Opening the Bible" will not give an easy answer to the questions of life. The stated purpose of the book is to answer broad questions and problems about the bible itself. The book will not tell the reader where to find his/her personal answers. "... One does not go from answer to answer, but from question to question."

While I felt Merton could have went further than he did in this essay, I appreciate the fact that he discusses the Bible in the perspective of modern life. References artists and writers of modern time give Merton's arguements a sense of realism.

I have read and reread this book. Merton's understanding and thoughts about the Biblical text are helpful, but his writing style is a bit...occluded. I have since purchase a few other texts on Lectio Divina that for a layman like me are much, much clearer both on method and practice.

Excellent. Thomas Merton gives readers his honest insights on what the Bible is and what it isn't.