Summary (from Back Cover):
How to Read the Bible is, quite simply, the best, most original book about the Hebrew Bible in decades. James Kugel guides the reader chapter by chapter through the “quiet revolution” of recent biblical scholarship, introducing the host of research findings that have fundamentally challenged the long-standing interpretations of the ancient text. All this leads him to the question that roubles everyone who takes the Bible seriously nowadays: Has modern scholarship killed the Bible? Or is there some way to salvage its message despite all that we can now know about how the Bible came to be? How to Read the Bible offers nothing less than a whole new way of thinking about sacred Scripture.
Title: How to Read the Bible
Subtitle: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now
Author: James L. Kugel
Publisher: Free Press
Date: 2007
Brian’s Brief Evaluation:
- Excellent, thorough and detailed (700+ pages, 36 chapters) explanation of biblical interpretation, then and now.
- Prerequisites: a reasonably solid familiarity with the content of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
The Musings of a Skeptical Believer 