The Bible and Poetry by Michael Edwards

The Bible and Poetry by Michael Edwards

A fresh, provocative look at the link between poetry and Christianity, both as it relates to the Bible itself as well as to Christian and religious life, by an accomplished scholar.

The Bible is full of poems. In the Old Testament, there arethe Psalms and the Song of Songs, the great exhortationsand lamentations of the Prophets, and passages of poetrywoven in throughout. In the New Testament, Jesusdescribes the kingdom of heaven with poetic epithetssuch as "a treasure hid in a field," calling the Son ofGod "the true vine," "the light of the world," "the goodshepherd," and "the way, the truth, and the life." TheGospels reverberate with allusions to the poetry of theOld Testament; the last book of all is Revelation, a visionary poem. The Bible, in other words, asks to be readpoetically from start to end, and yet readers have rarelyconsidered what that might mean, much less heededthat call.

In The Bible and Poetry, the poet and scholarMichael Edwards reshapes our understanding of theBible and religious belief, arguing that poetry is not anornamental or accidental feature but is central to both.He speaks personally of his early, unanticipated, transformative encounters with scripture. He offers close,insightful, and resonant readings of biblical passages.Poetry, as he sees it, is the vital and necessary mediumof the Creator's word, and the truth of the Bible is not aquestion of precepts and propositions but of a directexperience of its poetry, its power.

Michael Edwards is the director of the Ford Foundation's Governance and Civil Society Unit in New York, having worked in international development for the last 20 years. He is the author of Future Positive: International Co-operation in the 21st Century and co-editor (with John Gaventa) of Global Citizen Action. Alan Fowler is a consultant, analyst and writer who has worked for over 20 years with international development NGOs in Africa, Asia and the United States. He is author of Striking a Balance: A Guide to Enhancing the Effectiveness of NGOs in International Development and The Virtuous Spiral: A Guide to Sustainability for NGOs in International Development.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781681376370
ISBN 10	1681376377
Title	The Bible and Poetry
Author	Michael Edwards
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	The New York Review of Books, Inc
Year published	2023-08-15
Number of pages	192
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.