'It is strange that the Bible is our most treasured book, and yet it seems so difficult that we don't find it very helpful.

'Perhaps we have expected the wrong things of it; we have asked of it what it cannot do. We have expected the Bible to keep promises that it has never made to us. The Bible cannot be a good luck piece to bring God's blessing. Nor can it be an answer book to solve our problems or to give us right belief.

'I suggest that the Bible is precious to us because it offers us a way of understanding the world in a fresh perspective, a perspective that leads to life, joy, and wholeness. It offers us a model, a pattern, through which we may think about, perceive, and live life differently.'

In this unique book for all Christians, Walter Brueggemann shows us how we can approach the Bible not as a collection of ancient documents, but as our partner in an ongoing dialogue about our life here and now. The Bible Makes Sense includes suggestions for reflection, discussion, passages for meditation and outlines for group study and your own prayerful Bible reading.