"The truth is that the surface of the Bible is not always even interesting. And yet when one does finally get into it, in one way or other, when one at last catches on to the Bible’s peculiar way of saying things, and even more to the things that are said, one finds that he is no longer simply questioning the book but being questioned by it." Page 28

To open the Bible, Thomas Merton argues, is not just reading a text in the ordinary sense but the invitation to open oneself. He demonstrates that the Bible is a complicated collection of books, of times, places and personalities that in the New Testament fulfills its narrative in the complex person of Jesus, who is himself "the Word." Yet, it's not a book limited to Christians. Merton shows how the Communist filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini and the agnostic Jewish psychologist Erich Fromm were astute readers of the Bible. Novelist William Faulkner was no Christian apologist but his great work, THE SOUND AND THE FURY, illustrates a strong engagement with the Bible, Merton explains. Comparative religion and European history are also considered in this satisfying 94-page essay. Above all, I valued his assertion that: "The Bible prefers honest disagreement to a dishonest submission." Page 44. Even scholarly theologians like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who certainly was a successful Christian, have difficulty with the Bible: "I am going through another spell of finding it difficult to read the Bible. I never know quite what to make of it. I don’t feel guilty at all about it and I know it won’t be long before I return to it again with renewed zest. Is it just a psychological process? I am almost inclined to think so…True, there, is always a danger of indolence, but it would be wrong to get fussed about it. Far better to trust that after wobbling a bit the compass will come to rest in the right direction." (Bonhoeffer, Prison Letters) This essay was a response from Merton to a proposal to write the introduction to a secular Bible that was to be published by Time-Life books. I have enjoyed Merton's thought here and hope these insights will help me to approach the Bible with more honesty and persistence. In the past I have struggled with the place of the text within my own personal contexts of family and culture. In my case, as in the case of most readers, these are far from pure or healthy. I often have to struggle to see things clearly. The Bible lives most for me in the liturgy of my Church as in the community Merton describes in Faulkner's THE SOUND AND THE FURY.

This seems just right for a bookcrossing friend's bookshelf. So off it goes to Australia.

Received yesterday. Thanks a lot for this book and the accompanying letter. I read the book very quickly cover-to-cover las night, but will read it again more thoroughly.

I've put this in the mail to a friend, as it relates to an ongoing discussion we've been having about the Bible and Faith.