The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Many years ago when I began my service as minister in Harvard's Memorial Church, an anonymous benefactor offered to present as many Bibles as were..." (more)
Key Phrases: lively word, hard texts, biblical practice, New Testament, Saint Paul, Roman Catholic (more...)

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. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne (April 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060088303
• ISBN-13: 978-0060088309
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #36,161 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

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

By A Customer

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.

57 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you read only one book..., October 14, 2002

By	M. Nichols (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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

I have spent the last two years reading dozens of books on the Bible (and the Bible itself) and can say that Peter Gomes's "The Good Book" was the most fascinating, comprehensive, and thought-provoking. As he states in his intro: "The theme of this book 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."

Although a Republican and an ordained Baptist minister, Gomes spends the first part of the book debunking the damage done by conservative Protestants, who in their moral certainty have at times appeared to hijack the Bible as their own. Gomes effectively makes the case that conservative Christians are wrong in their estimation that the Bible is anti-Semitic, anti-gay, and anti-feminist. I haven't seen a more effective argument anywhere else, and this section will be soothing antidote to much of the misinformation that is pervasive in the media. (Where are the liberal Christian voices in the media?)

Having solved that (although I'm sure not all readers were as satisfied as I was), Gomes turns to what the purpose of reading the Bible can be. Many people have turned away from the Bible out of fear, but others have turned away because much of the Bible seems irrelevant today. Drawing on his skills as a preacher, Gomes uses the second half of the book to talk about why the Bible is relevant to our lives, as long as it is read correctly. It is true that much of the Bible was relevant in and of its time only (which is why such archaic laws as administering the death penalty to children and adulterers have fallen away, and why the stident attitudes about animal sacficice, slavery and women's roles have fallen away) and that many myths and legends have been literalized by unintelligent people (which is why many of the myths and legends in the OT have been debunked by science.) But, even with those limitations, Gomes makes the case that Bible still has relevance to life today. His argument is intelligent and persuasive, and makes for a delightful read.

41 of 45 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.