DESCRIPTION
A bold, historical, robust approach to reading Scripture and encountering Jesus anew
No one expects to be surprised. Yet biblical interpretation can do exactly that. Christians expect to see Jesus as they read the Bible, but when and how Jesus actually speaks through Scripture can still surprise us!
Drawing on the early church’s theological giants—Origen, Augustine, Gregory the Great, and more from the historical cloud of witnesses—author Jason Byassee models how we can recover ancient Christians’ multiple ways of reading the Bible to our benefit. As Byassee says, God himself is Jewish, Catholic, and Pentecostal—so much larger than our own little corner on the truth—and this book offers readers a refreshingly enhanced vision of the Bible and of Jesus himself.
REVIEWS
— Stanley Hauerwas
Writing with clarity, profundity, and humor, Byassee draws on the church fathers to recover reading habits that can help us become better and more faithful readers of scripture.”
— Jonathan R. Wilson
“Jason Byassee goes hunting in the church’s past and discovers a long-forgotten and much-needed treasure for today—richer ways of reading Scripture than the dry, lifeless habits of reading that bewitch and bewilder the church with illusory, pointless, and life-sucking arguments. Others have discovered the same treasure, but Byassee’s account stands out as a winsome invitation to an adventure with Christ.”
Christianity Today
“When you’ve read or studied the Bible for a long time, you can fall into the trap of approaching God’s Word as if there were nothing unpredictable in store. . . . Byassee helps us read the Bible with fresh eyes, enlisting insights from Origen, Augustine, and other great interpreters from church history.”
Calvin Theological Journal
“A main theme of this book is that reading Scripture should be a delightful and surprising experience. And a significant characteristic of the book is that its language is itself often delightful and surprising.”