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Rating: 
Summary: A Book that Makes Sense
Review: Frank Kermode once remarked that the literary impulse in the Bible was quite as powerful as the religious. At the very least, they are inextricable. And yet, despite the significance of the literary impulse in making sense of Scripture, study of literary typology and analysis of literary form have been largely reserved to the scholarly realm. Into this void comes Marshall Johnson's useful and knowledgeable book. Marshall introduces general readers to the major types of biblical literature -- wisdom literature, the poetry of worship, historical narrative, prophetic writings, legal collections, apocalyptic literature, letters, and the Gospels. In successive chapters, he fully delineates each type, reviews its background, discusses its distinctive features, explicates several major examples, and includes a final section of how to "read" the particular form. Johnson accomplishes all this in clear, readable, and non-technical prose. As is often the case with books I wish I had written myself, I have some questions about several of Johnson's choices. For instance, is the Book of Job truly an example of "wisdom literature" or should it be treated separately as a unique type of biblical literature, perhaps as a poetic dialogue? Can Isaiah, a complex blend of historical experience and poetic concerns, be as easily pigeonholed into the category of "prophetic literature" as Marshall believes? But these are mere quibbles. Johnson's knowledge of the Bible is voluminous, his theology is mainstream, and his perceptions are telling. His overarching goals are to help readers grasp the shape of the Bible as a whole and to become self-aware in their dialogue with the text. To this end, Marshall D. Johnson has written an excellent book, one which I strongly recommend. The highest accolade I can give "Making Sense of the Bible" is that, if I were still teaching my course on "The Bible and Literature" at Drexel University, I'd use it as a textbook.
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