Playing With Fire: How the Bible Ignites Change in Your Soul

Rating:
Summary: Good Intentions But Shaky
Review: Dr. Walt Russell's book, Playing With Fire, seeks to counter-act the existential interpretive method of scripture (or any literature for that matter). He is also interested in dispelling of the postmodernist idea about intentionality and content with the text. In other words, he rejects Derrida's view that the "meaning is outside of the text" and the modern existentialist view that the meaning resides in the text itself and is open to just about any interrpetation (regardless of how crazy it may be). In contrast, Russell offers a helpful hermeneutic that seeks to understand Scripture in terms of the genre. For example, one would interpret the Epistles of Paul differently than a historical narrative such as Joshua. It is all about what the author has in mind that we need to be concerned about. If we read a section from Scripture and find that Jesus calms the storm out at sea, we are not to interpret that to mean Jesus "wants to calm the storms of my our lives." This is what Russell essentially is attempting to reject.

Russell also explains the different types of ways to study. For example, in devotional reading, not much background information is necessary as compared to in depth work. He brings this around with similarly with the genres. For example, not as much information is needed for the poetic peices, as is necessary for the the prophetic books. He does a lot of work on comparing context vs pretext, top-down method, what he thinks are bibilcal ways of going about studying the word (meditations), etc.

The second half of the book consists of the application of Russell's method to Scripture in the various genres, where he points out certain information that enables you to better follow how the text should be interpreted. Russell is going to be interpreting this in light of his overarching view that, God has a plan that He is working out in human history to establish His Kingdom on earth and to bless all peoples of the world through faith, thus ultimately glorifying Himself. It should be pointed out (and this is crucial) that Russell's hermeneutic (as he presents it) is the method of progressive dispensationalists. For example, questions like "were the promises made to the church in the mind of the OT authors? No, so the promises are to be given to Jewish ethnic Israel." This is ultimatley why I reject Russell's method, but I think he has the right intentions on refuting the modern existential world view.

Over all, I think Russell is a good scholar and a good thinker (despite my many disagreements with him). I would recommend him for pro-dispensationalists but also suggest reading people like Vern Poythress and Gorden Fee as well.

Rating:
Summary: Not awful, but a bit disappointing
Review: First, let me say that I read this book and Fee's and Stuart's book "How to Read the Bible for all its Worth" in the same month. My analysis: Although they were written in the same style and utilize similar material, I thought "Playing with Fire" was not quite as clear and not as thought-provoking as "Read the Bible." Truly Dr. Russell is a thinker--I am fully impressed with their Bible program at Biola--and if I had not read "Read the Bible" at the same time, perhaps I would have liked his book more than I did. Russell does utilize some beneficial charts and makes several good points throughout. However, while this book could be beneficial, I hestitate to recommend it when there is a better book on the same subject available to you.

Rating:
Summary: Not awful, but a bit disappointing
Review: First, let me say that I read this book and Fee's and Stuart's book "How to Read the Bible for all its Worth" in the same month. My analysis: Although they were written in the same style and utilize similar material, I thought "Playing with Fire" was not quite as clear and not as thought-provoking as "Read the Bible." Truly Dr. Russell is a thinker--I am fully impressed with their Bible program at Biola--and if I had not read "Read the Bible" at the same time, perhaps I would have liked his book more than I did. Russell does utilize some beneficial charts and makes several good points throughout. However, while this book could be beneficial, I hestitate to recommend it when there is a better book on the same subject available to you.