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The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart Paperback – April 1, 2002
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"The Bible and the social and moral consequences that derive from its interpretation are all too important to be left in the hands of the pious or the experts, and too significant to be ignored and trivialized by the uninformed and indifferent.
- Print length400 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarperOne
- Publication dateApril 1, 2002
- Dimensions9.16 x 6.04 x 0.72 inches
- ISBN-109780060088309
- ISBN-13978-0060088309
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"Easily the best contemporary book on the Bible for thoughtful people." — The Right Reverend Lord Runcie, 102nd Archbishop of Canterbury
"Lively...offers a crash course in biblical literacy in a nuanced but easy-to-understand style." — Atlanta Journal-Constitution
"This is a reading not from the right or the left but from the living, loving heart of scripture." — Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature
“...Reflects Gomes’s great intelligence, open mind, humanity, wisdom, and struggle to understand the meaning of life and God’s word.” — Marian Wright Edelman, president, Children's Defense Fund
"...One of America's most compelling preachers ... a writer with flair and eloquence." — Harvey Cox, author of Fire from Heaven
"A riveting tour of this holy book with the guide both witty and wise ... great work of scholarship and imagination." — Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
About the Author
Peter J. Gomes has been minister of Harvard University's Memorial Church since 1974, when he was appointed Pusey Minister of the church, and serves as Plummer Professor of Christian Morals. An American Baptist minister, he was named one of America's top preachers by Time magazine. He is the recipient of thirty-three honorary degrees and an Honorary Fellow of Emmanuel College, the University of Cambridge, England, where the Gomes Lectureship is established in his name.
Product details
- ASIN : 0060088303
- Publisher : HarperOne; unknown edition (April 1, 2002)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 400 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9780060088309
- ISBN-13 : 978-0060088309
- Item Weight : 15.7 ounces
- Dimensions : 9.16 x 6.04 x 0.72 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #281,765 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,337 in Christian Bible Criticism & Interpretation
- #1,673 in Christian Commentaries (Books)
- #4,632 in Christian Bible Study (Books)
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Rev. Gomes asserts that Biblical literacy in this country is extremely rare. Among a thousand people polled in the US by the Barna Research Group 10 percent said that Joan of Arc was Noah's wife, 16 percent were convinced that the New Testament contained the Gospel of Thomas, and 38 percent believed the Old and New Testaments were written a few years after Jesus' death. Gomes observed humorously that, "These replies are worthy of the old Sunday school howler in which the epistles are defined as the wives of the apostles." (p. 5)
The Good Book is divided into three sections: "Opening the Bible" wherein Gomes warns against three dangerous and common temptations on Biblical interpretation: (1) bibliolatry, "the worship of the Bible, making it an object of veneration and ascribing to it the glory belonging to God," (2) literalism, "the worship of the text, in which the letter is given inappropriate superiority over the spirit, and (3) culturalism, "the worship of the culture in which the Bible is forced to conform to the norms of the prevailing culture." Section two, "The Use and Abuse of the Bible" is a historical account of how the Bible has been used to oppress certain groups: Jews, women, homosexuals, and minorities. Section three, "The True and Lively Word" explores what the Bible has to say about the good life, evil, suffering, temptation, wealth, science, mystery and joy."
In an interview about the book with the Harvard University Gazette, Gomes commented "I would say, one, the Bible is accessible. Two, it takes work. The Bible is not a Reader's Digest sort of enterprise, and you can't simply open it up, as 90 percent of religious people do, and just hope that inspiration oozes out of the page or that you can just figure it out because you're a reasonably intelligent person. But, three, the work pays off because the Bible has to do with issues, both great and small, that are as relevant as tomorrow's headlines."
The Good Book is filled with scholarship and imagination, with wit and wisdom sufficient to serve as a road map back to and through the Bible. I join with the former Archbishop of Canterbury, The Right Reverend Lord Runcie, who hailed The Book as "easily the best contemporary book on the Bible for thoughtful people."
I love Peter J. Gomes, and he is rapidly becoming one of my preaching heros. He has such compassion for the biblical texts and for those that read them. Inside this book you will understand what the Bible is and where it came from.
Of course, a book about the Good Book would not be complete without an analysis of how it has been used, or mis-used, in the past centuries and today. Such issues as slavery, alcohol prohibition, women clergy, and homosexuality are addressed. I particularly found the chapter on temperance to be really interesting for the scare tactics that were involved, and the fear of those "Whiskeypalians".
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