Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Let the Reader Understand - Dan McCartney and Charles Clayton




Let the Reader Understand: A Guide to Interpreting and Applying the Bible
By Dan McCartney (M. Div., TH.M., Ph.D.) Charles Clayton (M.A.R.)
P&R Publishing - Second Edition





Rating: 9
Readability: 5 (I'd say 8.5 at least for a theology book, though! :-)
Impact: 8

Read it again: I'm sure I'd benefit from it
Recommend it: Highly!

This book is an excellent in-depth look at interpreting Scripture by the it's own methods as well as an overview on Biblical theology.
The Bible is the Word of God. As Christians we should seek to understand it!!! Let the Reader Understand clearly explains tools that can be used by any Christian at any stage in their study. Through careful detail this book uses Scripture to defend Christian theology and stress the importance that we be immersed in the Word.

From the Book:

"We will achieve understanding only if we submit ourselves, presuppositions and all, to the One who understands and interprets all things rightly. The goal therefore is to become, not presuppositionless, but prepositionally self-critical"

"We may only know absolute truth through God."

"The fact that truth is more then doctrine should never be used to suggest that doctrine does not matter. Without its propositions, truth not only would be unknowable and incommunicable, but would collapse in meaninglessness."

"Unless we have repented and are seeking, through the Holy Spirit, to understand Scripture, we are likely to find what we want to find."

"The Bible itself is redemptive-historical in character, it is Christological in focus, and it is ecclesiologically applied."

"We must always be ready to stand back and evaluate tradition, without necessarily rejecting it."

"Study is useless if the reader does not first submit to Scripture's author, expecting to hear God's voice and obey it."



This book has really helped my study. I can not recommend this book enough!

This is the first book to check off my list in the syllabus for Ligonier Academy's Intermediate Biblical Studies Program! Yippee!

Sorry to those you might not get excited about theology on this post! It was pretty funny when I was reading it. I kept stopping and writing down ideas for my writing or day dreaming about plot ideas and cool symbolism and meaning. Goofy? I know, but what we read is going to effect so much of what we write.

Sometimes we get a groove were we are just pumping to much out and not putting enough in. Real, solid, sometimes hard to grasp truth coming in will greatly influence your outlook on life and your writing. I was blessed by this book!

Thanks for reading,
Miss Pickwickian

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