The Bible can be hazardous to one's health if read with faulty expectations. Writing with compassion and wit, Russell Pregeant shows that reading "without interpretation" is impossible. The right question is which assumptions are appropriate. He addresses the most common and most harmful assumptions about the Bible, beginning with the expectation that it will always "speak" as directly and immediately as a fortune cookie. He moves on to address biblical authority, the Bible and science, "last days" prophecies, and the Bible as rulebook and guide to beliefs. Pregeant insists that we take responsibility for what we do with this powerful book.

Russell Pregeant's Engaging the New Testament (1995) has provided a rich interdisciplinary New Testament introduction for upper-level and graduate students; incorporating numerous methodsliterary, historical, psychological, theological, and social-scientific, and critically perceptive introductions to each of the New Testament writings. Encounter with the New Testament adapts the best features of that textbook for beginning undergraduate students; surveying approaches to biblical studies, historical and cultural backgrounds, the historical Jesus, and the rise of the resurrection faith attention to extracanonical materials. The text book includes charts, maps, illustrations, reading suggestions, and more.

This new introduction incorporates: a wide range of methods-literary, historical, psychological, theological, and social-scientific critically perceptive introductions to each of the New Testament writings a comprehensive survey of approaches to biblical studies, historical and cultural backgrounds, the historical Jesus, and the rise of the resurrection faith attention to extracanonical materials charts, maps, illustrations, reading suggestions, and more.