From a recent entry on my blog:
This Advent the lectionary focuses on the Gospel according to Mark. In anticipation of that, we read this afternoon from Peter Kreeft's highly-recommended "You Can Understand the Bible." Dr. Kreeft's book is a collection of chapter-length overviews of the books of the Bible, and each one is infused with his trademark humor, memorable phrasing, and doctrinal clarity.
The three-page chapter "Just the Facts: Mark's Gospel" is excellent. He explains that Mark was a close associate of Peter and that in the early days of the Church, his Gospel was referred to as "Peter's memoir." Kreeft also describes Mark's intended Roman audience as people of action much like modern Americans. Accordingly, Mark uses the words "at once" or "immediately" no less than 42 times. In today's (Sunday's) short Gospel reading, the action-filled word "watch" appears four times, the last punctuated with an exclamation point. Mark's Gospel highlights the "love in action" of miracles. These miracles teach two things, explains Kreeft:
(1) Christ's identity as the Son of God, His divine power, and
(2) His compassion and love in response to human needs.
"These two always go together in the Gospels. The Romans tended to separate them, to see power as unloving and love as unpowerful."
As a Christian and even more so as a minister, I use the Bible every day. I know that its sheer size and sometimes its seeming unintelligibility can frustrate and even frighten many from trying to read all of it. There are certain passages that I, too, feel uncomfortable tackling until I've done research.
And that is precisely where this book comes in. Kreeft identifies some of the historical, philosophical, and theological themes of each book in the Bible. The guide has a chapter devoted to each book of the Bible, so the guide's organization is very straightforward and thus user-friendly.
Kreeft has the rare gift of translating the insights of deep and hard working scholarship into "layman's terms." He also offers excellent interpretations of some of the spiritual insights of the Wisdom literature (Job, Ecclesiastes, etc.). He wrote a great book on Job, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon also worth checking out.
Furthermore, if you are a minister looking for sermon material that is expository, Kreeft is generally a very quoteworthy author. I have quoted him in sermons to my congregation much to their delight.
In time, this book may prove to be one of Kreeft's most practical contributions to Christendom apart from his excellent works of apologetics. The book is well-written and useful.
