Rating

5/10 – Although I technically am the target audience for this book, I believe that much of what Pennington was trying to say could have been said far more concisely. I also did not appreciate his writing style nor the pedagogical mechanisms he employed in the text. I do believe that for someone who has never had any training in hermeneutics would benefit from reading this as a place to start.

Observation

Pennington’s overarching thesis, which I think is spot on, is that the entire point of Scripture is to know God. He begins the book by noting that knowing God comes from a “journey of life experiences that are shaped and interpreted over time by Scripture.”¹ Pennington looks at engaging Scripture through three paradigms: informational reading, theological reading, and transformational reading. Although he makes these distinctions, he does not claim these paradigms should be exercised in a vacuum. As far as each one goes, informational reading employs a good hermenuetic to derive the intended meaning of the text, theological reading intends to derive meaning about God from the text, and transformational reading sincerely seeks to cultivate a life-altering relationship with God informed by his revelation of himself in Scripture. One interesting thing that struck me particularly was when Pennington quoted Eugene Peterson often, once citing “The more `spiritual’ we become, the more care we must give to exegesis. The more mature we become in the Christian faith, the more exegetically rigorous we must become. This is not a task from which we graduate.”². This comment, combined with Pennington’s rhetoric of humble exegesis, borne of love, equipped me with rhetoric to articulate these paradigms I have been experiencing and believing for a while now. That was very refreshing. Pennington carefully reminded readers to consider the Christian tradition when reading the Bible, which was very appreciated. Additionally, he tied the knot by reminding readers that all of this gritty, hard work was for the sake of knowing God. Commenting on how reading Scripture orients a person He wrote, ``Our reading must include being transformed in how we think, what we love, and how we live our bodies."³

Reflection

As I reflect on this text, I appreciate how in spite of all of the pedagogical mechanisms (mainly the road trip motif), Pennington sincerely invites the reader to meet, know, and love God through his self-revelation. I was challenged by Pennington to consider if my approach to Scripture was holding his paradigm in tension. I do believe it is fruitful to exercise seeing the reading of Scripture through these lenses. Overall, I will remember this book as a great recommendation to a younger believer interested in learning better ways to engage Scripture.

χάριτος καἰ εἰρήνη,
(grace and peace)

- Carson