You Can Understand the Bible: A Practical

and Illuminating Guide to Each Book in the Bible

by Peter Kreeft

Ignatius Press, 2005

365 pages, $16.95

To order: (800) 651-1531

ignatius.com

There’s something inherently puzzling about reading a book that’s about reading a book.

And when the book you’re reading about is as monumental as The Book, the question of “middleman” is even more bewildering. Why spend precious time reading about the Bible when you could be diving right into the Bible itself?

Peter Kreeft answers that question not only by providing insightful commentary and analysis on specific books and sections, but also by setting the Bible as a whole in its historical and theological context. In the process, he offers a singular “big picture” overview of the Bible, highlighting its key themes and making you want to read God’s Word with renewed zeal.

In an author’s note, Kreeft claims that this book “tells the reader not the things only scholars care about, like arguments about dates and authorship, but what everyone (except fools) cares about: life-changing wisdom.” When all is said and done, he adds, we should read the Bible because it directs us to Jesus Christ — and “meeting him is the point of the whole Bible and the whole point of our lives.”

It is helpful that, while shedding light on many of the Bible’s broader truths, Kreeft also employs a systematic, book-by-book approach that breaks up the Bible into manageable pieces. This organization should make the work appealing to beginning Bible readers while also inviting in the intermediates among us.

There are times when the commentary can be a bit repetitive. This may be due to the author’s striving to impart clear and substantive understanding. After all, he’s an educator by profession (a philosophy professor at Boston College, to be precise). While the redundancies can be distracting at times, they certainly don’t derail the experience of growing deeper in the Word of God with the guidance of a world-class teacher.

The Bible is, after all, the story of and from our unchanging God, the God who promised us that he is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). How disappointing would it be if God’s own testimony merely laid out a series of random events, characters, and ideas strung together like a bad TV series that has seen one too many seasons?

Meanwhile Kreeft’s pithy, engaging writing style makes the Bible’s messages accessible and interesting to readers. Here’s how he describes the power of the Holy Spirit as seen in the Acts of the Apostles: “Not until the Spirit came did they have the spiritual power to win hearts and minds. …That would have been like trying to pull a plow with a kitten, or light up a city with a flashlight. There was a power shortage.”

Grasping themes so basic, yet so critical to our human experience of God, can bring us the “life-changing wisdom” to which Kreeft refers at the book’s opening.

It has been said that what is important is not how many times you have been through the Bible, but how many times the Bible has been through you. Reading Scripture should inspire us to change how we lead our lives by drawing us closer to God.

With this in mind, the only reason to read a book about the Bible is if what we’re reading leads us to the Bible itself — and, in turn, to the God who inspired it. You Can Understand the Bible does its job here. It’s a worthwhile companion for those seeking to study God’s Word and apply it to their lives.

Lynn Wehner writes from

Cheshire, Connecticut.