A CONVERSATION IN THE ART OF SPIRITUAL READING
Eugene H. Peterson
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
2140 Oak Industrial Drive NE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505
© 2006 Eugene H. Peterson
All rights reserved
Published 2006
Paperback edition 2009
Published in association with the literary agency of Alive Communications, Inc.,
7680 Goddard Street #200, Colorado Springs, CO 80920
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Peterson, Eugene H., 1932–
Eat this book: a conversation in the art of spiritual reading / Eugene H. Peterson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-8028-6490-1 (alk. paper)
1. Bible — Criticism, interpretation, etc.
2. Christian life — Biblical teaching.
I. Title.
BS511.3.P48 2006
220.071 — dc22
2005054131
Eugene H. Peterson is the author of Praying with the Prophets and The Message, a contemporary translation of the Bible. Chapter 1 of this volume is excerpted from The Best Christian Writing 2002, edited by John Wilson. © 2002 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Introduction © 2002 Eugene Peterson. Reprinted by permission
Unless otherwise noted, Bible quotations in this publication are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
faithful companions in the vineyard of the text
1. “The Forbidding Discipline of Spiritual Reading”
2. The Holy Family at Table with Holy Scripture
3. Scripture As Text: Learning What God Reveals
The Revealing and Revealed God
The Holy Trinity: Keeping It Personal
4. Scripture As Form: Following the Way of Jesus
5. Scripture As Script: Playing Our Part in the Spirit
The Immense World of the Bible
Reading Scripture Liturgically
7. “Ears Thou Hast Dug for Me”
III. The Company of Translators
Appendix: Some Writers on Spiritual Reading
Early drafts of this material, now considerably revised, appeared in the journals Crux and Theology Today. Portions of the manuscript were given as lectures at Regent College, Vancouver, as the Glenhoe Lectures at Louisville Seminary, and at the Schloss-Mittersill Study Center, Switzerland. Some of the material on metaphor in chapter seven comes from Where Your Treasure Is (Eerdmans, 1993).
Professor Iain Provan and Professor Sven Soderlund, colleagues at Regent College, gave a careful reading to the manuscript. Their help has been invaluable, ...
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About Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual ReadingEugene Peterson is convinced that the way we read the Bible is as important as that we read it. Do we read the Bible for information about God and salvation, for principles and “truths” that we can use to live better? Or do we read it in order to listen to God and respond in prayer and obedience? The second part of Peterson’s momentous five-volume work on spiritual theology, Eat This Book challenges us to read the Scriptures on their own terms, as God’s revelation, and to live them as we read them. With warmth and wisdom Peterson offers greatly needed, down-to-earth counsel on spiritual reading. In these pages he draws readers into a fascinating conversation on the nature of language, the ancient practice of lectio divina, and the role of Scripture translations; included here is the “inside story” behind Peterson’s own popular Bible translation, The Message. Countering the widespread practice of using the Bible for self-serving purposes, Peterson here serves readers a nourishing entree into the formative, life-changing art of spiritual reading. |
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