Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading

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Eugene Peterson is one of my favorite theologians. Like Henri Nouwen, Peterson has an unusual gifting with words. He phrases his thoughts with extraordinary insight. His ability to conceptualize truth is uncommon. And this book is no exception to his literary genius. Chapter four on biblical exegesis alone is worth the price of the book. In fact, it is the best book I've ever read on the nature and importance of exegetical research and lectio divina. This book serves as a reminder of our central task as preachers.

Unlike any other profession in the world, preachers have the privilege to shape people's lives with Scripture.

More books by Eugene Peterson

This book teaches us how to be moved and how to move others, how to enter the text ourselves and import the text into others. The unique insights here will drive you to make the study of Scripture your paramount priority for preaching and for personal growth. Like Nouwen's writings, it is the type of book that every sentence must be read and contemplated. I believe there is no higher calling than the call to transform lives through the framing of consonants, vowels, nouns, and verbs of the Bible. I highly recommend this book for every Evangelical preacher.

Eugene Peterson, the author of the Message paraphrase of the Bible is a prolific author.

He has also authored several other books, including a 5 volume spiritual theology series. Eat This Book is the second book in the series. Peterson informs the reader about the importance of how we read the Bible and not just that we read it. Too often, evangelicals come to the Bible with a desire to parse and master the word rather than have the word master them.

In the first section, he makes a strong case for the transformative nature of scripture. In the second, he presents the Lectio Divina, a method of sacred reading. Well, to be fair, he is careful not to provide a prescriptive method, but rather talks about what spiritual reading looks like. I particularly benefited from his description of the contemplatio as this has never been entirely clear to me before.

In the third section, he addresses how Bibles are translated including his own approach to translating the Message. This section did not flow from the other two, but was interesting nonetheless. I think this is a beneficial read for those wanting to grow in godliness through interacting with the word. One person found this helpful 2 people found this helpful. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. Having laid the foundation, Peterson provides an overview of lectio divina.

He breaks the practice into its component parts: Throughout the book Peterson suggests that lectio divina is a biblical practice and one that has been practiced since the dawn of the church. This is not strictly true, as it is the product of a particular form of Christianity: The way Peterson presents it is quite innocuous, almost as if he is deliberately avoiding the deeper practices and even potential problems associated with it.

Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading

If everyone who practiced lectio divina did so just as he lays it out, it would be a practice I would heartily endorse. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Peterson does little to help the reader understand that this is a practice more associated with Catholic mysticism than with Protestantism. Many of the most notable teachers of lectio divina would lead readers into practices that are unbiblical. If in my Bible reading I lose touch with this livingness, if I fail to listen to this living Jesus, submit to this sovereignty, and respond to this love, I become arrogant in my knowing and impersonal in my behavior.

Book Review - Eat This Book - Tim Challies

This shows, I think, that Peterson is genuinely concerned with how Christians read the Bible. He realizes that, when read with an impure heart or out of poor motives, the Bible can be used to cause all manner of harm. Great damage has been done by those who know the words of the Bible best. Satan himself knows and quotes the Bible. But is the problem with the Bible or with the reader? Peterson further voices this concern in a metaphor.

I do not feel that this is a fair parallel. I know of people, and you probably do as well, who have been simply handed a Bible and been told to read it. They read and were changed. They read and were saved.

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There is a vast difference between an adolescent who takes the wheel of a car and a man or woman who is given a Bible. The metaphor that compares a Bible to a car and an adolescent to a reader is simply not fair or accurate. It gives far too little credit to the work of the Holy Spirit. It is possible that Peterson feels that the Scriptures are somehow a little bit deficient?

That they are not the best way that God could have revealed Himself to us? While this is true, at least to some extent, what Peterson fails to mention is that this is exactly how God intended to give us the Scriptures. Yes, we need to invest time and effort in knowing, studying and understanding them, but we do so knowing that the Scriptures, exactly as they are, are just what God desired that we have.

Any fault we perceive in them is a fault within us. In these three quotations, three of a number I could have referred to, I think we see an important piece of the puzzle that led to The Message. Eugene Peterson feels that the equation of person plus Bible can lead to all manner of hurt and pain and destruction. This is, in many cases, true.

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