A fascinating read - very encouraging and challenging. Peterson is the author of The Message, a contemporary translation of God's Word which many have praised for its insight and depth. In this book, Peterson examines the way that Christians approach reading Scripture and basically says that most read God's Word incorrectly. According to the Book of Revelation, Peterson says that we are to eat God's Word, to digest it, to allow it to enter our very being. He claims that even the way that the Bible is written is as important as what is written in the Bible - again, that the comprehensive manner of Scripture lends itself to a comprehensive digestion of the whole, as opposed to reading bits and pieces or taking smaller chucks of the larger whole. Like a novel or a movie, the Bible is written in such a manner to communicate a story that taken in small bites as verses or chapters misses the forest for the trees. Peterson also says that Christians shouldn't just read Scripture, they should assimilate it into their very lives - God's truth should emanate forth from their lives, in their decisions, by their actions and countenance. As Christ has described Himself as the Bread of Life and has declared that men should not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from God - Peterson uses this concept to further reinforce his premise that Scripture is the very nutritional sustenance necessary for daily living. Without God's Word we are anemic and frail, with it we are energized and empowered.

Eat This Book is not an easy read - not as easy as Peterson's The Message translation. He dives into some deep issues in this book including the four elements of reading - lectio, meditation, oratio, and comtemplatio. The information is powerful and very challenging and I would suggest this book for any serious, or wanting-to-be-more serious, student of Scripture.

If you follow the advice and the reasoning in this book, I predict you will have an experience with the Bible similar to that described in the Road to Emmaus passage (Luke 24:13-32). That is, your hearts will burn within you as He opens up the Scriptures to you.

Eugene Peterson is a mighty man of God. I love his books because they are well-researched, beautifully written and leave a lasting impression.

If you want to get closer to God, Eugene Peterson can show you how!

I recommend Peterson to every seeker I meet.

Kristine M Smith, Author
DeForest Kelley: A Harvest of Memories : My Life and Times With a Remarkable Gentleman Actor

Excellent way to delve into the Word! A great aid to understanding Scripture and applying it to one's life. Highly recommend!!

This was a great book. The vocab may have been a little heavy in some places, but it had such a solid message that is rarely talked about in such ways. This is Peterson's best by far. It was like reading the best sermon. I couldn't put it down. But, it was right up my alley. I love to tell scriptures in creative ways that are still wholly truthful. Peterson is a pro. I'm, evidently, still a beginner.

Worth the first chapter alone, Eat This Book, is Peterson at his lucid, heart expanding best. A potent prescription for curing the anemic state of the Western Church, (arguably the weakest member of the global Body of Christ)...Peterson recovers for us the long lost art of Biblical meditation.

Reverse Thunder, Working the Angles and Eat This Book are Peterson's best works, and belong in the library of every thoughtful lover of God. When I cull my extensive library, I give or throw away every book that my future grandchildren might find irrelevant. Eat This Book will be an important part of the diet for generations to come.

Eating books? The image is as old as the Bible itself, in which heavenly beings tell Ezekiel and later John the evangelist to "eat" scrolls. Tasting, chewing, swallowing, digesting, and being nourished by the Word of God --- it's an apt foundational metaphor for the "spiritual reading" Eugene Peterson espouses.

Although EAT THIS BOOK is the second of Peterson's five works on spiritual theology, it stands alone, independent of the first (CHRIST PLAYS IN TEN THOUSAND PLACES). Unlike CHRIST PLAYS, which I would hand to a serious but uninformed seeker, EAT THIS BOOK is more suitable for Christians with some familiarity with Scripture and Christian basics. This is not a book that explains, for example, where to start initial Bible reading (with Genesis? with Mark or John?) or that really commends one particular version, unless it is Peterson's own "contemporary language" version, titled THE MESSAGE.

Peterson devotees will be particularly interested in the last section of the book, which in the larger context of textual translation tells the story of how and why Peterson started retranslating the Bible from the original Greek and then Hebrew into the popular MESSAGE version.

But that's not the central message or purpose of the book. Peterson wants us to see the Bible, rather than personal experience, as the authority for living. Noting a contemporary interest in spirituality, he says, "An interest in souls divorced from an interest in Scripture leaves us without a text that shapes these souls." But this isn't an academic interest in Scripture. "An interest in Scripture divorced from an interest in souls leaves us without any material for the text to work on." He also wants us to read the text, not primarily for knowledge, for theological study, for proof-texting, or even for inspiration --- for our own purposes --- but rather to incorporate it into our lives. "Spiritual reading," he says, means "participatory reading." It involves really digesting the story --- the sentences and the words --- of the Lord and living them out in obedience.

A center section of the book --- 30 pages --- discusses lectio divina, a 12th-century pattern of biblical reading that is better known in Catholic than in Protestant circles: reading the text, mediating on it, praying it, and living it out. The four aspects aren't necessarily done in a "stair-step fashion" but "more like a looping spiral," Peterson notes.

Even these chapters on lectio divina aren't written in a how-to voice but rather as a conversation or an essay explaining the dynamics, purposes and benefits of participatory reading.

Peterson includes an interesting though probably obvious discussion about the nature of words and language itself --- that it is first a spoken, then a written, form, both in history and in personal experience, from infancy to more advanced learning. He has sparked in me a greater interest in listening to the Scriptures as well as reading them.

--- Reviewed by Evelyn Bence

The author seems to be very verbose about making a point, and doesn't give much (if ANY) scriptural references to things, what I'm sitting here doing for hours and hours is listening to a guy cheapen things, generalize, overstate and come to no conclusions. Over and over again. I really wanted to like it, though! I mean I figured a cd series with a title like "Eat This Book" would be mind-boggling. Most of the time he's just splitting hairs and rephrasing things by transposing words... for what seems to be merely the sake of doing it to sound wise. This doesn't fall in line with how "I" measure wisdom, which is to express hard concepts or new ideas for the intellectual AS WELL AS the layman. I'm all for vocabulary words but if they don't make your point, its just fluff. This, is all just my opinion. If it helps you, that is great, not trying to say don't be helped. I have a VERY amazing read that if you ever had time, I think could be just as helpful if not more than "Eat This Book". Its called "The Christ of the Mount" by E. Charles Stanley. This guy expresses more in one sentence than an entire cd I listened to did! Truly a gem.

In a world of many opinions and many books it's often hard to feel like you are reading something that is really teaching you wisdom (rather than just more opinion). Peterson does us a great service in this book by freeing us to read the Bible with less opinion and more relational reverence. Highly recommended and great for an Adult Sunday School class.

I read this book aloud. The expressiveness of the language really shone. I found it a timely inspirational book that has inspired me to continue reading the Bible particularly The Message. The wisdom , integrity, scholarship and passion of the writer impressed me. An easy must read for people who want to grow in faith in a vital relevant way by ingesting the message of the Bible.

I read this book aloud. The expressiveness of the language really shone. I found it a timely inspirational book that has inspired me to continue reading the Bible particularly The Message. The wisdom , integrity, scholarship and passion of the writer impressed me. An easy must read for people who want to grow in faith in a vital relevant way by ingesting the message of the Bible.

This is a great book by the author of "The Message" which is a wonderful, modern translation of the Bible. It is well worth the time and will definitely benefit one with an open heart.

I'm prejudiced for Eugene Peterson whose The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language is the most stimulating and refreshing version of Scripture out there today.
Eat This Book offers good advice on how to do spiritual reading in a grand manner, as well as informing us on how The Message came into being. Peterson is a real chef when it comes to serving up tasty and sound morsels for hungry believers.