Opening the Bible [Paperback]

For many people the Bible is strange and unfamiliar territory, impossible to navigate without a certain kind of knowledge and skill. Roger Ferlo leads his readers through the practical difficulties of reading the Bible, offering advice that is true to the way Anglicans have read Scripture from the time of Tyndale and Cranmer.

Ferlo explains why the Bible looks the way it does, the theology that lies behind the many different versions and translations, how to deal with the notes and cross-references, and the practical tools needed for studying the Bible. Above all he teaches the importance of approaching the Bible with respect-a book with a long history, complex traditions, and diverse authorship, which must be read on its own terms. Ferlo identifies the ground rules of reading Scripture for Anglicans, noting the particular ways Anglicans have read the Bible for revelation, insight, and ethical directives, and suggesting that Scripture itself contains many clues for unlocking its own mysteries.

Robert Ferlois rector of the Church of St. Luke in the Fields in New York City, and has led studies of the Bible in a number of parishes and dioceses. Before his ordination as an Episcopal priest, he taught English at Yale University.The second volume in theNew Church's Teaching Seriesaddresses the how, why, and what questions of reading Holy Scripture. Roger Ferlo, a one-time professor of English at Yale and currently the rector of the Church of St. Luke in the Fields in New York City, displays his well-earned reputation as a teacher in this excellent introduction. . . . The book is probably best read in the way the author (and his editor) intends, as part of a six-session introductory study of the Bible, with one of the six chapters read before each meeting. It would thus provide a common-and very common sense-understanding of the history of Scripture. . . . Is the reader of Scripture to be caught in a battle between literalist and analytical wl#