BIBLICAL STUDIES
The Mind in Another Place
How We Read the Bible
My Life as a Scholar Luke Timothy Johnson
A Guide to Scripture’s Style and Meaning Karolien Vermeulen and Elizabeth R. Hayes
The memoir of one of the best-known and most influential New Testament scholars of recent decades—with reflections on the scholarly life and how it has changed over the years. “It is so important for biblical scholars to give an account of their own formation—the social, racial, and educational contexts that led to their work. This is what we find, in accessible prose, in Luke Timothy Johnson’s memoir. Readers will find a rich resource for studying the historical context of New Testament studies in the United States in the mid-twentieth century to the turn of the twenty-first century.”
— LAURA SALAH NASRALLAH
Yale Divinity School
“Biblical scholars rarely write books of the ‘I couldn’t put it down’ variety. But Johnson has done so. It is entertaining. It is informative (documenting, among other things, a field’s changes over the last half century). And it is wise, above all regarding the moral and intellectual virtues. If you aspire to be a historian of early Christianity or an exegete of its texts and cannot find yourself in this book, you need to pursue another line of work.”
— DALE C. ALLISON JR.
Through accessible explanations of twelve key stylistic elements that have been central to biblical scholarship in recent decades, How We Read the Bible provides all who study Scripture with the tools to understand what happens when we read and draw meaning from biblical texts. Rather than problematizing the divide between authors from the ancient world and a modernday audience, Karolien Vermeulen and Elizabeth Hayes bridge the gap by utilizing recent research on language and the mind to explore the interaction between the cues of the text and the context of the reader. With numerous examples from the Old and New Testaments and helpful suggestions for further study, How We Read the Bible can be used within any framework of biblical study—historical, theological, literary, and others—as a pathway to meeting Scripture on its own terms. “Reading the Bible is anything but straightforward. In this marvelous little book, focusing on both the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and the New Testament, the two authors share many insights concerning the language and literary conventions of the Bible. As a result, anyone who reads it will become a more careful, accurate, and sophisticated Bible reader.” — MARC ZVI BRETTLER
Duke University
Princeton Theological Seminary
“Memories of another America, a monastic and seminary culture long gone, and even universities themselves could be a cabinet of curiosities. Not as Johnson tells it. The Mind in Another Place takes readers into the ‘passionate detachment’ of a life devoted to what the author admits is scholarship with a contrarian streak. A great read for anyone discerning if scholarship is the Mount Everest to climb.” — PHEME PERKINS
“How We Read the Bible is an accessible introduction to reading Scripture with help from cognitive stylistics. Vermeulen and Hayes welcome the reader to consider how they read the Bible by shedding light on the experience of reading itself. In the process, they have gifted their readers with a lucid and approachable handbook that provides plenty of diagrams, examples, and case studies. I highly recommend this book.”
— JEANNINE K. BROWN
Boston College
Luke Timothy Johnson is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor Emeritus of New Testament and Christian Origins at Candler School of Theology, Emory University. He won the 2011 Grawemeyer Award in Religion for his Among the Gentiles: Greco-Roman Religion and Christianity. Johnson’s many other books include The Revelatory Body; Brother of Jesus, Friend of God; The Writings of the New Testament; and the two-volume work The Canonical Paul.
Bethel Seminary
Karolien Vermeulen is FWO (Research Foundation—Flanders) Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Jewish Studies, University of Antwerp. Elizabeth R. Hayes is affiliate assistant professor of Old Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary. 978-0-8028-7809-0 • Paperback • 208 pages • $24.99 US • $33.99 CAN • £19.99 UK
978-0-8028-8011-6 • Jacketed Hardcover • 278 pages • $27.99 US • $37.99 CAN • £21.99 UK
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