Responses to 101 Questions on the Bible

Rating:
Summary: Anything by Raymond Brown
Review: Fr. Raymond Brown was one of the world's leading Scripture scholars, and anything written by him is worth the expense and effort. His writing style is so easy to read that he makes even the most difficult things understandable. In this book, he answers 101 questions on every topic from which Bible translations are the best, to how the Bible was put together, to specific questions on content. An excellent resource.

Rating:
Summary: Great Bible scholar responds to frequently asked questions
Review: The late Raymond E. Brown was the greatest Bible scholar of our time. His brilliance, his faith, and his intellectual honesty shine through once again in this volume as he thoughfully responds to frequently asked questions about the Bible.

Here, he takes on hard questions he has encountered through the years. A common theme of many of the questions is how literally we ought to take various events described in the Bible. Father Brown takes care to keep his responses non-technical. As always, however, his opinions are profound, thought provoking, and--alas---subject to attack from both the far right and the far left.

This volume addresses a number of specifically Roman Catholic questions. Even so, as a Protestant believer, I found the dialogue both relevant and informative. In short, Father Brown is a tremendous source of wisdom for all who wish to approach the Bible with respect and intellectual honesty--whether they are Roman Catholic, Protestant, or (and, perhaps, especially) simply searching.

Rating:
Summary: A concise summary of the Church's interpretation
Review: Valuable not only for its questions about the Bible, but for its questions about the doctrine of the Catholic Church. Brown addresses the Trinity, Mariology, Apostolic Succession and to a certain extent, the virtues of the sacraments. One could say that one of Brown's purposes in writing this book was to show how grounded in the Bible these and other church teachings actually are. As such, he is answering current anti-catholic arguments that the Catholic church doctrine is extra-biblical.

Brown's success in this regard is not complete. A slight disengenuousness pervades the tone of some of his more convoluted responses; that is I feel as though he is writing for Catholic censors (if they exist) as much as for the layman. However, for delineating a contemporary Catholic perspective on the Bible, this is the best book I have ever read. Many of my misconceptions about the Church were laid to rest in its pages.

For many Americans trapped between secularism and fundamentalism, this book will feel like a rare instance of straight talk. However, I should warn you that Brown is less charitable to evangelical believers than he could be in an otherwise genial and accomodating book.

I give this book four stars because I'm relatively new to Biblical commentary and there may be other books out there that do this better, but this is the best so far.