Book: Eat this book - a conversation in the art of spiritual reading

Eat This Book challenges us to read the Scriptures on their own terms, as God’s revelation, and to live them as we read them. With warmth and wisdom Peterson offers greatly needed, down-to-earth counsel on spiritual reading. In these pages he draws readers into a fascinating conversation on the nature of language, the ancient practice of lectio divina, and the role of Scripture translations; included here is the “inside story” behind Peterson’s own popular Bible translation, The Message.

CONTENTS
1. "The Forbidding Discipline of Spiritual Reading" 
      Eat This Book
2.  The Holy Family at Table with Holy Scripture
3.  Scripture As Text: Learning what God Reveals
     The Revealing and Revealed God
     The Holy Trinity: Keeping It Personal
     Depersonalizing the Text 
     The Replacement Trinity
     Hoshia
4   Scripture As Form: Following the Way of Jesus
    The Story
    The Sentence
5 Scripture As Script: Playing Our Part in the Spirit
   The Uncongenial Bible 
   The Immense World of the Bible
   Obedience 
   Reading Scripture Liturgically
   Virtuoso Spirituality
   Lectio Divina
6 Caveat Lector
7 "Ears Thou Hast Dug for Me"
   Lectio
   Meditation
   Oratio 
   Contemplatio
8.The Company of Translators 8 God's Secretaries 
   Translation into Aramaic 
   Translation into Greek 
   Translation into American 
9 The Message
   Oxyrhynchus and Ugarit
   Lost in Translation 


REVIEWS
Lauren F. Winner— author of Girl Meets God and Real Sex
"Deep, stirring, luminous, even profound — if you are going to read one book about reading Scripture, it should be this one."

Gerald Sittser— author of A Grace Disguised
"Eugene Peterson has written a magnificent book about how to read the Bible. As any editor would say, a book must 'show,' not just 'tell.' Peterson's book does exactly that. The book itself has a biblical quality to it. Peterson uses vivid language; he tells and then reflects on wonderful stories; he invites readers to read their own stories in light of the story. This book is the fruit of decades of reading, pondering, conversing about, praying over, and living this story. Peterson encourages us to read the Bible as if we were dogs gnawing on a bone. Eat This Book made me lick my chops."

Church & Synagogue Libraries
"Peterson explores the ancient discipline of lectio divina and how its elements of reading, meditating, praying, and living can help us receive Scripture as 'formative for the way we live our lives, not merely making an impression on our minds or feelings. ' . . . Recommended."

Publishers Weekly
"Peterson's exposition of lectio divina is one of the fullest to appear in recent years. . . A worthy sequel to his 2004 hit Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places."