Privilege the Text!

This is an important, original, book for preachers and serious students of the Bible. \\r\\n\\r\\nKuruvilla, writing as a conservative-Protestant-evangelical, focuses on the importance of understanding each preaching unit or passage of Scripture theologically, for life change into the image of Christ. \\r\\nHe argues the focus of the preacher (and any biblical interpretor) is to understand the individual message of the text and what the author (divine and human) was doing with that text for the audience. \\r\\nHe has a helpful chapter discussing the legitimacy of pursuing the timeless message of a """"text"""". \\r\\n\\r\\nKuruvilla sees Christ in every text by proposing and arguing for a """"Christoconic"""" interpretation of Scripture - each """"pericope"""" of Scripture revealing a facet of what it means to be Christlike. \\r\\nHe also challenges the validity of the popular """"Christocentric"""" interpretation of Scripture (see books by Clowney, Keller). Positively, use of the Bible is heavy throughout. \\r\\nWhether the reader agrees with his proposal or not, it will certainly challenge and refine the thinking. \\r\\n\\r\\nThe language of the book is technical in parts (he occasionally uses biblical Greek and Hebrew) and generally written for a more academic audience. However, it is certainly readable for any serious Bible student, and the book is still very valuable even if the reader doesn't understand biblical languages. \\r\\n\\r\\nOverall, well worth an investment…