Opening the Book of Faith: Lutheran Insights for Bible Study

This is a nice primer on the meaning of the bible to ELCA Lutherans. It's a collection of three different parts, each by a different author (not to be confused with the 3 ghosts that visited Scrooge). The intended audience of the first author must have been someone other than me, because I didn't really get very much out of it. The second two authors were much more interesting though, and made it certainly worthwhile to buy and read the book. When I loan the book to other people who are my age, I suggest that they start with chapter 2.

'Opening the Book of Faith' is an early spearhead for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) initiative to promote Bible reading. And, if you play your cards right, by seeking out the Augsburg Fortress bookstore at an ELCA synod event, you will probably wrangle a copy of the book for free, which is a very good thing, since the book is good, but not very good. The book focuses on four primary styles of reading the bible, does a very good job of explaining these styles, and gives four very good case studies for how to apply them. I have two quibbles with the authors. First, there are a lot more than four ways of reading the Bible. At least there are certainly more than four. Witness, for example Donald Knuth's method of reading and studying the 59 Chapter 3, Verse 16s in the Protestant Bible (plus the lovely calligraphy he commissioned to highlight these passages. Second, the authors give little advices on secondary sources, and most ways of reading the Bible simply cannot be done without good references, and there are many, but there is a great variation in the value of many to the layman. So, if you can score this paperback for free (at the cost of giving Augsburg Fortress your email address, it is well worth your while.