This volume is a brief introduction to the field of biblical hermeneutics. Each of its eleven chapters is followed by discussion questions focused on the content of the chapter; further reading on the subject; a devotional exercise that includes reading a passage of Scripture, praying and listening to God; and suggested activities that encourage further active learning experiences. This arrangement of the material helpfully leads readers to experience the biblical texts with life-giving abundance.

Chapter 1 discusses the goal of biblical hermeneutics: listening to and interpreting God’s word, which should be read and received with an open mind, an open heart, and a prayerful disposition. Using the words of Psalm 119, the author argues that listening to God’s instruction means living it out. Chapter 2 examines the unity of the Bible and the importance of biblical theology, which presents the unity of Scripture “according to categories drawn from the Bible itself” (p. 21, emphasis original). Building on the works of Lesslie Newbigin and N. T. Wright, Bartholomew advances the understanding of the Bible as a drama in six acts, which readers are invited to indwell.

Chapter 3 addresses God’s self-revelation. Following the model of revelation developed by Christoph Schwöbe, Bartholomew discusses the author, the context, the content, the recipients, and the result of revelation. The acceptance of the sixty-six books by all Christians, even though the Catholics and the Orthodox Bibles include the Apocrypha, underscores the inspiration and authority of the Bible (p. 53). Chapter 4 examines the historical development of biblical hermeneutics from modernity and historical criticism—briefly mentioning JEDP, for example—to the rediscovery of the Bible as literature, to postmodernity and multiplicity of readings of Scripture, to theological interpretation, which uses “the fear of YHWH” as the starting point for its reading of the text (p. 65). Bartholomew suggests an integrated approach to hermeneutics, which encompasses historical, literary, and theological/kerygmatic dimensions.

Chapters 5 to 11 use biblical passages to demonstrate the author’s hermeneutical approach. Chapter 5 attends to the literature of the biblical books, pointing out how different corpora of biblical literature emphasize each of the three dimensions mentioned in the previous chapter. Bartholomew argues that recognizing literary genres of biblical books enhances one’s ability to listen to the word of God. Chapter 6 examines the importance of grounding Christian faith in “the great acts of God recorded in the Bible” (p. 99) while discussing the relationships between biblical narratives and history. Bartholomew advocates that the biblical writers use history in service of theology to bring to the fore the kerygma of God.

Chapter 7 addresses the message/kerygma of the Bible and the way to understand it. Bartholomew suggests two approaches of listening to biblical texts. The first one is Paul Ricoeur’s approach, which looks at the world of the text, the world behind the text, and the world in front of the text (p. 117). The second one is the rhetorical trajectory of the text, which considers “the ways in which a text communicates and persuades” (p. 118). Chapter 8 speaks about listening to the word of God today. While the message of the Bible is clear, preachers and teachers of the word should be attentive to the cultural and historical aspects of the text that cannot be easily and directly translated into the contemporary world. Scripture comes alive at the intersection of the rhetorical trajectory of the passage and the reader’s own life arc (p. 138).

Having established the foundational aspects of reading the Bible—literary, historical, and kerygmatic—Bartholomew moves on to examine three approaches to reading the Bible—liturgical, ethical, and missional hermeneutics—which in his view are “at the heart of biblical interpretation” (p. 147). In the following three chapters, the author demonstrates how to interpret Scriptures using one approach at a time. Chapter 9 discusses a liturgical hermeneutic of Scripture. Just as every generation of Israelites experienced God’s presence at Sinai through the words of Exodus and Numbers, the early believers dedicated themselves to the apostolic teachings about Jesus. Bartholomew argues that through communal listening of the Bible, believers today “receive more and more of Jesus” (p. 158). Chapter 10 considers an ethical hermeneutic of Scripture. Encountering the living God and his message inevitably speaks into readers’ ethics and the ways they live out the biblical teachings. Bartholomew advances that while the Bible does not address a variety of modern issues, contextual culture-making should be guided by biblical ethics (p. 173). Chapter 11 examines a missional hermeneutic of Scripture. Bartholomew discusses George Hunsberger’s major characteristics of a missional hermeneutic: the missional direction of the biblical story, the missional purpose of the writings, the missional locatedness of the readers, and the missional engagement with cultures. Bartholomew suggests that entire communities rather than individuals should practice such a reading of Scripture.

This volume is a helpful primer on biblical hermeneutics. Bartholomew artfully brings together the importance of reading and listening to the Bible and the need for serious and dedicated study of the biblical text. However, it would have been beneficial if he had provided examples of the insufficiency of the historical-critical method and offered his own reading of these passages following the triadic approach. Additionally, one wonders if the author should explain some of the biblical examples more fully (e.g., the book of Jonah), as inexperienced readers may get confused and miss the important points the author makes.

Nevertheless, this book is a must read for all those interested in the field of biblical hermeneutics. It guides readers in learning how and what to listen to in the message of God with one’s mind, heart, soul, and strength, under the guidance of prayer and a desire to live in obedience to the Lord.