Eugene Peterson is one of the authors whose name I hear floating around the mainline churches. I don’t know his work well, but I do have a copy of The Message, his contemporary language paraphrase of the Bible, sitting on one of my shelves.
I discovered last night while surfing Kindle-related links that one of his books is currently on offer at Amazon for free. It’s The Invitation: A Simple Guide to the Bible. I just downloaded it myself and started reading it so I can’t say much yet, but it looks like an accessible work on spiritual reading, integrated with a modern perspective on the formation of the Scriptures. From the reviews, the book consists of his historical introductions to the books of the Bible from The Message, probably bundled with an introductory chapter on reading in general.
So—I can’t vouch for it’s content quite yet, but it seems like an interesting read, and you can’t beat the price! This is likely a limited special offer so I expect it’ll only stay free for this week (or perhaps less).
(And even if you don’t have a Kindle reader, the Kindle for PC reader works pretty well too…)
His book on the Psalms is pretty solid. You should look at it. He makes many of the points I’ve heard you make and does so in an accessible way.
Peterson’s pastoral writings are pretty solid. The Contemplative Pastor is one of my favorites. I also use The Message from time to time with confirmands and even once or twice in preaching when it presented an all-too-familiar-text in a fresh way.
I’ll have to download this other.
If The Message is any indication of his work, I’ll give it a skip, particularly since you can’t use a PDF to level a chair.
This book offer does not appear to be available in the US.
Ditto what Robb said – Peterson’s pastoral writings are great, particularly Working The Angles. I don’t recall his denominational background, but much of what he has to say is very compatible in an Anglican setting.
In other news, hi! The subject & setting of your blog looks amazing. I suppose it was inevitable that I’d find another Anglican who loves Anglo-Saxon language and history, but it’s still quite the pleasant surprise.
Hi Matthew–there are a few of us around… Thanks for dropping by!