Christopher Hall shows that studying the writings of the leaders of the early church reveals how the Bible was understood in the centuries closest to its writing. He also lays out how modern Christians can benefit from patristic interpretation of Scripture.

The Bible is meant to be read in the church, by the church, as the church. Following the example of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Derek Taylor argues that we should regard the reading of Scripture as an inherently communal exercise of discipleship. In conversation with other theologians, Taylor shares how this approach to Scripture can engender a faithful hermeneutical community.

Modern society is awash in words. An auditory tidal wave cascades from our televisions, radios, media players, and the Internet. Today’s distracted worshippers often feel spiritually shortchanged when the Scriptures are spoken without passion and power. This lively and encouraging resource is the collaboration of a gifted Bible narrator and a mentor to church leaders. In it they show how churches can train their own teams of Scripture readers. These laypeople can—with enthusiasm, conviction, and passion—”unleash the Word of God,” and prepare hearts to receive the message. Spoken well, the Word of God opens and penetrates the listener’s heart. Simple, straightforward, and culturally relevant, this unique book provides the necessary tools to teach you how to read the Bible aloud, in a way that communicates its life-changing power!

What role do varied understandings of the church play in the doctrine and interpretation of Scripture? In The Church’s Book, Brad East explores recent accounts of the Bible and its exegesis in modern theology and traces the differences made by divergent, and sometimes opposed, theological accounts of the church. Surveying first the work of Karl Barth, then that of John Webster, Robert Jenson, and John Howard Yoder (following an excursus on interpreting Yoder’s work in light of his abuse), East delineates the distinct understandings of Scripture embedded in the different traditions that these notable scholars represent. In doing so, he offers new insight into the current impasse between Christians in their understandings of Scripture—one determined far less by hermeneutical approaches than by ecclesiological disagreements. East’s study is especially significant amid the current prominence of the theological interpretation of Scripture, which broadly assumes that the Bible ought to be read in a way that foregrounds confessional convictions and interests. As East discusses in the introduction to his book, that approach to Scripture cannot be separated from questions of ecclesiology—in other words, how we interpret the Bible theologically is dependent upon the context in which we interpret it.

We read the Bible and interpret Scripture in order to live in grace-filled relation to God's divine purpose.When we approach the Bible as Scripture author, Joel Green, takes seriously the faith statement that the Bible is our Book; these scriptures are our Scripture. We are not reading someone else's mail--as though reading the Bible had to do foremost with recovering an ancient meaning intended for someone else and then translating its principles for use in our own lives. When we recall that we are the people of God to whom the Bible is addressed as Scripture, we realize that the fundamental transformation is not the transformation of an ancient message into a contemporary meaning, bur rather the transformation of our lives by means of God's Word. This means that reading the Bible as Scripture has less to do with what tools we bring to the task, however important these may be, and more to do with our own dispositions as we come to our engagement with Scripture. We come not so much to retrieve facts or to gain information, but to be formed and ultimately, transformed. Scripture does not present us with texts to be mastered but with a Word, God's Word, intent on mastering us, on shaping our lives.

Timothy George reveals how the sixteenth century?s revolution in theological thinking was fueled by a fresh return to the Scriptures. He underlines several Reformers' unique engagement with the Bible and suggests what their legacy might mean for reading, praying and living out the Scriptures today.

The difficulty of interpreting the Bible is felt all over today. Is the Bible still authoritative for the faith and practice of the church? If so, in what way? What practices of reading offer the most appropriate approach to understanding Scripture? The church's lack of clarity about these issues has hindered its witness and mission, causing it to speak with an uncertain voice to the challenges of our time. This important book is for a twenty-first-century church that seems to have lost the art of reading the Bible attentively and imaginatively. The Art of Reading Scripture is written by a group of eminent scholars and teachers seeking to recover the church's rich heritage of biblical interpretation in a dramatically changed cultural environment. Asking how best to read the Bible in a postmodern context, the contributors together affirm up front "Nine Theses" that provide substantial guidance for the church. The essays and sermons that follow both amplify and model the approach to Scripture outlined in the Nine Theses. Lucidly conceived, carefully written, and shimmering with fresh insights, The Art of Reading Scripture proposes a far-reaching revolution in how the Bible is taught in theological seminaries and calls pastors and teachers in the church to rethink their practices of using the Bible. Contributors: Gary A. Anderson Richard Bauckham Brian E. Daley Ellen F. Davis Richard B. Hays James C. Howell Robert W. Jenson William Stacy Johnson L. Gregory Jones Christine McSpadden R. W. L. Moberly David C. Steinmetz Marianne Meye Thompson

Scripture reading should be a highlight of a worship service. In this book, Dr. Arthurs guides church leaders through giving higher priority to the public Scripture reading by increasing both its quantity and quality. Includes DVD.

Think of all the senses you use when you pick up a Bible. What do you see? What do you smell? What do you touch? Reading scripture attentively is more than a matter of sight. Most of us have been taught to think about God in visual terms, yet the very subject matter of scripture—our relationship with the fullness of God—makes irresistible demands upon all of our senses if we are to begin to understand anything about God. In these meditations on stories from the New Testament, Roger Ferlo shows us how to read the Bible in a “full-bodied” way, with all the senses attuned. For just as a printed recipe cannot substitute for a mouth-watering feast, so the Bible must be brought to life through the senses. Its stories must be seen, heard, touched, smelled, and tasted. Only then, Ferlo believes, can we truly begin to encounter in our lives the Word of God to us in scripture. Sensing God is one of our series of Cowley Cloister Books: smaller format, gift edition books designed for meditative and devotional reading.

This fascinating and lively book provides the first comprehensive discussion of the production, circulation, and use of books in early Christianity. It explores the extent of literacy in early Christian communities; the relation in the early church between oral tradition and written materials; the physical form of early Christian books; how books were produced, transcribed, published, duplicated, and disseminated; how Christian libraries were formed; who read the books, in what circumstances, and to what purposes. Harry Y. Gamble interweaves practical and technological dimensions of the production and use of early Christian books with the social and institutional history of the period. Drawing on evidence from papyrology, codicology, textual criticism, and early church history, as well as on knowledge about the bibliographical practices that characterized Jewish and Greco-Roman culture, he offers a new perspective on the role of books in the first five centuries of the early church.