And God Spoke; The Authority of the Bible for the Church Today

Since I stated when I started writing this blog that I would write about every book I read, I intend to include those texts that I read for my Education for Ministry course.  Thus, And God Spoke: The Authority of the Bible for the Church Today (#350) by Christopher Bryan, which is one of this year's two Interlude books assigned to students in all four years of our course work.

Since I think the title speaks for itself, I won't belabor the point, except to say that I was pleasantly surprised by how readable and accessible this book is for the lay reader.  Christopher Bryan teaches seminarians in the School of Theology at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, so he naturally writes from an Episcopal perspective when discussing the Bible and its authority, although the Education for Ministry program itself is open to Episcopalians, Lutherans, Roman Catholics and Presbyterians.  He makes salient, thought-provoking ideas seem natural and within reach of any person serious about pursuing the study of the Bible.  For a first year student like me, that means a year devoted to the Old Testament, or Hebrew Bible.  Yet he writes with humor and a lot of exclamation points!  Really!!!  He also quotes from some unexpected sources for this work.  My one quibble is that he misspells Jane Austen's name when he quotes from Emma!  Once, I might have thought a typo, but twice is a pattern not picked up by Spellcheck.  Oh, well.  Only God is perfect...