Eugene H. Peterson, The Invitation: A Simple Guide to the Bible (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2008), 203pp., ISBN 9781600062339.
This nicely-produced hardback book gathers together the introductions provided by Eugene Peterson to each biblical book in The Message, effectively providing a concise overview of the whole Bible. Each major section (Books of Moses, Historical Books, etc.) also has its own introduction.
In addition, the book begins with three short, helpful chapters: (1) ‘On Reading the Scriptures’, compiled from Peterson’s evocative Eat This Book: The Art of Spiritual Reading (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2006), reminding us of the importance of submission and transformation in reading Scripture; (2) ‘The Bible of Surprises’, reflecting on reading the Bible as personal address from God, as a conversation in which the first and last words are his; (3) ‘The Story of the Bible in Five Acts’, a brief overview of the biblical story in, er… five acts: creation, fall, Israel, Jesus, and the new people of God.
The book would make a nice gift. It could be given to someone fairly new to the Bible, but it may well be that some of Peterson’s insights depend on existing knowledge which he then ‘slants’ in a particular way.
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