The Book of the People: How to Read the Bible

Description

A. N. Wilson has been thinking about the Bible, and reading it, since he read theology for a year at university. Martin Luther King was 'reading the Bible' when he started the Civil Rights movement. When Michelangelo painted the fresco cycles in the Sistine Chapel, he was 'reading the Bible'. In The Book of the People A. N. Wilson explores how readers and thinkers have approached the Bible, and how it might be read today. Charting his own relationship with the Bible over a lifetime of writing, Wilson argues that it remains relevant even in a largely secular society, as a philosophical work, a work of literature and a cultural touchstone that the western world has answered to for nearly two thousand years. He challenges the way fundamentalists - whether believers or non-believers - have misused the Bible, either by neglecting and failing to recognise its cultural significance, or by using it as a weapon against those with whom they disagree. Erudite, witty and accessible, The Book of the People seeks to reclaim the Good Book as our seminal work of literature, and a book for the imagination.

A. N. Wilson grew up in Staffordshire and was educated at Rugby and New College, Oxford. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he holds a prominent position in the world of literature and journalism. He is a prolific and award-winning biographer and celebrated novelist. He lives in North London.

Believe it or not, this is a work of genius * The Times * [Wilson's] voyage is a personal one, and it's well worth following because, apart from anything else, he has studied his subject with dedication and scholarship. * The Oldie * The Book of the People is a wide-ranging and richly stimulating enquiry into what the Bible is, what it means, how it works, and how hopelessly wrong the plodding fundamentalists of both atheist and religious persuasions are about it. * Sunday Times * Wilson's delightful and unexpectedly moving book is characterised by intellectual humility * New Statesman * Richly stimulating * The Sunday Times * It's rare to want a book to be longer....thought-provoking and never less than entertaining * Sunday Telegraph * An elegant and insightful book * The Independent * [A] fascinating and superbly researched biography * Mail on Sunday * An accessible guide to reading the Bible ... [A.N. Wilson] says difficult and challenging things in a light and easy way, and makes the reader feel that the Bible will be a delight rather than a burden to read. * Times Literary Supplement *