Thumbs up for Eat this Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading by Eugene H. Peterson. Religion.
Although not Christian, I am interested in both lectio divina and all types of translation and interpretation, as well as the history of Christianity, since it is, after all, the history of my ancestors and cultural progenitors. I’ve read little bits of Peterson’s work before (in Take & Read, Spiritual Reading: An Annotated List, not reviewed here as it is indeed mostly lists) and was sufficiently impressed by his intelligence, warmth, and great skill with words, that I didn’t hesitate to pick up Eat this Book. Realistically, since it’s mostly about reading the Bible, I cannot recommend this unless you are Christian, and I am in no position to recommend it if you are. (Although I suspect Peterson has enough of a sense of humor that he’d be amused to know that his advice is going to be applied to the Tao Te Ching.) In any event, it’s a great book, and I particularly loved the sections on his own work as a Bible translator.
I sometimes marvel that God chose to risk his revelation in the ambiguities of language. If he had wanted to make sure that the truth was absolutely clear, without any possibility of misunderstanding, he should have revealed his truth by means of mathematics. Mathematics is the most precise, unambiguous language that we have. But then, of course, you can’t say “I love you” in algebra.
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