Playing With Fire: How the Bible Ignites Change in Your Soul
Russell wants every Christian to use the Bible to ignite a brandishing flame within the heart and mind. As a professor of Bible at Talbot School of Theology and chairman of biblical studies and theology at Biola University, Russell's teaching experience has spanned 30 years. His passion for the Bible, and the life-changing work that can result from studying and understanding it, is contagious. Russell encourages readers to use five steps to effectively interpret Scripture: identify the genre of the biblical passage (since specific rules apply to different types of writing), determine the main theme and condense it into one sentence, make observations about the structure of the passage, discover the meaning of the Scripture and internalize how it affects us and, finally, make personal application to our lives. Throughout this 13-chapter text, Russell overviews each biblical book's primary and secondary contributions, then reflects upon the internal applications gleaned from the reading. He takes readers through various books of the Bible using a top-down approach, descending from the overarching biblical genre through the unit, paragraph, sentence and eventually to a single word. Russell's admonition to get serious about playing with biblical fire will likely motivate the serious-minded professional, student or layperson. (June)Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.