About a year ago I received Luke: The Gospel of Amazement from the Biblical Imagination Series by IVP Books and yesterday I received the latest installment in this series, Mark: The Gospel of Passion. Michael Card wrote these and there are books on Matthew and John forthcoming in the next couple of years.
Honestly, when I received the book on Luke unsolicited, I put it on my shelf and didn’t think too much about it–I really wasn’t very interested–but when I received the one on Mark yesterday, I decided I should at least do IVP the favor of looking at the book since they sent it to me. After browsing the volume on Mark I am excited about the fact that I will be able to use the one on Luke in the next several weeks as I preach through the parables in Luke’s gospel.
Card has written some very unique books inviting his readers to use “informed imagination” to better understand and experience the scriptures.
Some of us embrace the Bible with our hearts, which is right to do, and yet we do not bring disciplined minds into the process. Sometimes the reverse is true: we apply first-rate minds to the Bible and yet fail to be sensitive to what the Word is whispering to our hearts. In the end, its not a heart problem, nor is it a head problem. It is an integration problem…The imagination is the vital bridge between the heart and the mind.
Card points out that this is not an academic commentary, but that it is informed by scholarly research. His goal? To help his readers better understand and enter into the life of Jesus through the gospels of Christ. He wants his readers to feel the rocky shores by the Sea of Galilee, recognize the reference to the book of Jeremiah when Jesus called the first disciples, and to get to know Luke and Mark as people (at least as well as we possibly can) and not only as recorders of Christian writ.
For me, these books are great because I often lose sight of the imagery of the scriptures. Card points out that the gospel writers are interested to tell us that the smell of the perfume filled the air. His word-pictures that cover each gospel from cover to cover are great and I believe they will not only help me to better understand and appreciate scripture, I believe and hope that they will help me to better communicate God’s word to the people he has called me to shepherd.
