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Know the BibleKNOW THE BIBLE When you drive a car you make countless minor adjustments to the steering wheel to keep going straight. Many of these adjustments are imperceptible, but without them you would veer off the road. In the same way, says Michael Eaton, we need constantly to read our Bibles so that we can make the adjustments in thinking and behaviour we need to keep on course. Know the Bible sets out a two year reading programme that will take you through the entire Bible, interspersing the different genres of the Bible en route. Each reading is followed by questions and sometimes by explanatory notes. The notes often highlight how the structure of the text points to its message - a particular concern of the author. Michael Eaton is a prodigious writer on the Bible and this volume reflects his considerable experience of Bible exposition. In any such work there will be interpretations with which you do not agree, but Eaton's approach reflects a commitment to the authority of Scripture and its relevance for the contemporary world. He is fair-minded on controversial passages, often presenting different views held by evangelicals without pushing one view. Two criticisms. First, the majority of readings are simply followed by questions. I would have liked more of Eaton's explanatory notes. Second, a daily Bible reading aid is likely to get bent and bashed, stuffed into bags and have early morning coffee split over it. I doubt whether the binding of this paperback will hold up to two years' worth of this treatment. Anyone who perseveres to the end is likely to go through two or three editions. But perhaps this is a clever marketing ploy. Tim Chester, Sheffield© Evangelicals Now - January 2003 |