Book 11 of 2012 Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible

I was freely browsing through the website when I came across this book.  THe concept intrigued me.  What would one find if one read the Bible with little to no background and little to know recourse to commentaries???

THis is a book to read.  It is a book to talk about in a group--as long as the group members also read the Biblical book being discussed (hmmm, do I sense a study group opportunity......).  One of the benefits of a book like this to those of us who, perhaps, have become a bit more jaded at biblical study is that we have forgotten what it means to read a book with fresh "untainted" eyes.

In the first week of my intro to NT course in seminary (a class whose student body was a mix of seminarians and Religious Studies students from the University) we did an exercise where we were to read the letter to Philemon and then discuss it.  But we were to assume that this was the ONLY piece of Christian writing we had ever seen.  For some it seemed it may have been.  And that was a real eye-opener.  It shows us what assumptions we tend to make when reading scripture.  THis book reminded me of that exercise.