Surprised by Jesus Again: Reading the Bible in Communion with the Saints
Overview
A bold, historical, robust approach to reading Scripture and encountering Jesus anew.
No one expects to be surprised. Yet biblical interpretation can do exactly that. Christians expect to see Jesus as they read the Bible, but when and how Jesus actually speaks through Scripture can still surprise us!
Drawing on the early church’s theological giants—Origen, Augustine, Gregory the Great, and more from the historical cloud of witnesses—author Jason Byassee models how we can recover ancient Christians’ multiple ways of reading the Bible to our benefit. As Byassee says, God himself is Jewish, Catholic, and Pentecostal—so much larger than our own little corner on the truth—and this book offers readers a refreshingly enhanced vision of the Bible and of Jesus himself.
- Seeks to change our intentions in reading Scripture from winning to worship
- Connects Scripture reading to deeper love of God and neighbor
- Proposes a reacquaintance with the medieval pattern of fourfold biblical interpretation
- Grafted In: Relearning God’s Promises to Israel
- Origen: Blush While You Read
- Mary: Ponder and Treasure
- Augustine: Suffused with Delight
- Learning Scripture in Nazareth: God Is Jewish, Catholic, and Pentecostal
- Gregory the Great: Tracker of Hidden Mysteries
- The Institution of the Old Testament: No Death, No Resurrection
- Four Senses: Reading the Bible with the Early Church
The author of this aptly named book wants readers to see the Bible in new, yet very old ways. By recovering the Jewishness of Jesus and his world, by finding out why early Christian leaders practiced ‘fourfold exegesis,’ and by simply taking tensions, conflict, and even disagreement for granted within the New Testament, Byassee believes Bible-readers will once again be ‘surprised by Jesus.’
—Mark Noll, author of Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind
“Writing with clarity, profundity, and humor, Byassee draws on Augustine, Origen, and Gregory (among others) to help us recover reading habits that can help us become faithful readers of scripture. In particular, Byassee gives us an account of how and why a robust Christology requires Christians to recognize our need for those people called Jews. Byassee’s argument is heavy, but this is a book that can restore the joy that is commensurate with reading God’s word.
—Stanley Hauerwas, author of The Character of Virtue
Jason Byassee goes hunting in the church’s past and discovers a long-forgotten and much-needed treasure for today. The treasure is richer ways of reading scripture than the dry, lifeless habits of reading that bewitch and bewilder the church with illusory, pointless, and life-sucking arguments. Others have discovered the same treasure, but Byassee’s account stands out as a winsome invitation to an adventure with Christ. The adventure is to escape the spells of modernity and reorient ourselves to the life-giving power of scripture that flows from the Father, Son, and Spirit.”
—Jonathan R. Wilson, Regent College
- Title: Surprised by Jesus Again: Reading the Bible in Communion with the Saints
- Author: Jason Byassee
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Print Publication Date: 2019
- Logos Release Date: 2019
- Pages: 200
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Bible › Criticism, interpretation, etc.--History--Early church, ca. 30-600
- ISBNs: 9780802871688, 0802871682
- Resource ID: LLS:SRPRSDJSSCMSNTS
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T03:09:03Z