Gratefi¡l acknowledgrnent is made for peunission to use the following material:
Page 253: These lines of Anna Russell comprise the thi¡d vene of “Iolly Old Sigmund Freud,” TIIE ANNA RUSSELL SONG BOOK, 1960, and are published by anangement with The Carol Publishing Group. Page 336: Excerpt from “Little Gidding” in FOUR QUARTETS, copyright 1943 by T.S. Eliot and ¡enewed l97l by Esme Valerie Eliot, reprinted by pennission of Harcou¡t Brace & Company, and Faber and Faber Limited.
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Copyright @ 1996 by Peter J. Gomes Inside back oover author photograph by Jerry Bauer Published by arrangement witl¡ the author Visit our website at http:/þww.AvonBools.com/Bard ISBN: 0-380-72323-9
All rights resewe{ which includes the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatso; ever except as provided by the U.S. Copyright Law.
CHAPTER I .WHA’T’S IT ALL ABOUT?
{.
l ,lf ANY yeers ago when I began my service as minister in Harvard’s LYltr¡emorial Church, an enonymous bJnefactor offered to present as many Bibles es were needed to fill the peJs. No particular translation was specified; and no obiections were mede to the Revised Standard Version. Before proceeding’too far along the road of this benefaction I felt it wise to take the advice of some colleagues, and I found their reection to be apprehensive, and in fact quite suspicious of the moti, vation behind the gift. “What does the benefactor want or expect?” I was asked, and warned that placing Bibles in the pews would create an
invitation to steal tÈem. Further, I rvas wamed that “people will think that this ìs a fuñdamentalist church. If they see Bibles in the pews you will have an image problem.?’My colleagues and counselors meantwell, I knew, and wished only to protect the church from secular and religious zealots. These concerns notwithstanding, however, we eceepted the gift, placed the Bibles in the pews, and, happily, over the years we have lost quite a few to theft.
one orthe more ” :::,:::”:’:::::”pon which even Miss Manners and other arbiters of social etiquette have failed to provide a useful strategy, is the one in which you have more than a nodding acquaintance with sorneone. At the point of introduction you got the person’s neme, forgot it, asked it again, and forgot it again. Meanwhile you go on rneeting this person, ch:r’tting and being chatted’with, but you have cleady passed beyond the point where.you can ask for the
Published in ha¡dcover by William Monow and Company, Inc.; for information address Permissions Depa¡tment, William Mor¡ow and Company, Inc., 1350 Avenue of the Americas, New Yo¡k, New York 10019.
The William Monow edition contains the following Library of Congress Caaloging in Publication Data:
Gomes, Peter J. The good book : reading tlre Bible with mind and hea¡t / Peter J. Gomes.
p- om. l. Bible{riticism, interpretation, etc. I. Tiile.
BS5ll.2.G66 1996 220.1–4c20
First Bard Printing: May 1998
BARD TRADE ,MARK REG. U.S. PAT. OFF. AND.ITiTOTHR’COI’NTRIES,’¡,ÍÀRCA RECISTRADÀ IIECHO EN U.S.A.
Printed in the U.S.A.
If you pwcbased this book u,itliout a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen p¡operty. It was rcport€d as ‘l¡nsold and destoyed” to the publisher, and neithe¡ Ëe autüc.nor úe publisher has received any payment for this “strip@book”
96-32M9 CIP
QPMI098?654321