The Drama of Scripture by Bartholomew and Goheen (2nd edn)

The Drama of Scripture
Finding Our Place in the Biblical Story
Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen
Grand Rapids: Baker Academic
ISBN 978-0-8010-4956-9
Pbk, 272 pp, £11.05.

The Drama of Scripture is the first book in the trilogy that also includes Living at the Crossroads and Christian Philosophy. First published in 2004, now a decade later we have the updated second edition.

The success of the first edition has been justly deserved. It has been translated into Russian, Korean, Chinese, Czech and Spanish. There were UK and US version and an abridged version with a study guide published as The True Story of the Whole World and now this second edition.

The second edition hasn’t changed the narrative structure; the biblical story of creation, fall and redemption still remains, as do the chapter titles. The main additions are not major but include mainly updated references and a few literary tweaks, its length has been increased by almost ten per cent.

The book was written for first-year undergraduates but the appeal will be wider. In an age when biblical literacy is waning, even in the church, this book will provide a welcome tool in the pastor’s, and was as educator’s, arsenal. Few books do a similar job of retelling the biblical narrative as a coherent, unified, integrated story of redemption. Even fewer do it with the grace, humour and accessibility of Bartholomew and Goheen. The book will help makes sense of the storied scriptures and of our storied world. Finding our place in the scriptures will help us to find our place and role in the world. This second edition is to be warmly welcomed.