The Bible Compass: A Catholic's Guide to Navigating the Scriptures

Lovely resource on the Bible for Catholics of all stripes. Dr Sri covers the basics of what the Bible is, how the Bible needs to fit into the larger picture and not be cherry picked for quotes, and some nice basic background of the life and times of the salvation story. Wonderful writing style that is both informative and easy to read. I would recommend to anyone because the cautions of reading the Bible in isolation from anything historical or in novel ways are valid for everyone. I realize that non Catholics will object to the Catechism and the Magisterium, but really the points are still valid.Dr Sri first sets out what Catholics believe about the Bible - it is divinely inspired, written truly by both its human author and God via the Holy Spirit, and that it is not to be viewed in isolation. Next, he covers five keys to proper understanding of the Bible. The first is to take it for what it is - a library that has various time periods and styles - as he says don't try to get out of a ticket by reading traffic law as poetry. The next three are the three legged stool of Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium. He covers how they work together and how missing any one will cause problems while also covering exactly what each is and isn't. Finally, he covers the four senses of scripture taught by the Church. The literal sense, which we must understand first, the allegorical sense that helps us find Christ in the reading, the moral sense that helps us find a Christian path to follow in the reading, and finally the anagogical sense that helps us see the heavenly future. All together this reminds us to take the Bible together as a whole with what we already know never focusing on one line out of context of the rest of the picture. Next he covers a few key things about where the Bible came from and what makes something canonical. This is a nice segue into the final section of background. All those interpretive keys don't work well if you don't know a little about the geography or customs of the people writing the story. Not knowing about your translation or what biases might exist also set you up to fall down on the job.

This book is very interesting it keeps you intrigued you're definitely want to read itI am also going to buy it and give it away And give it away for christmas gifts excellent gift to give

Good companion book

I love anything written by Edward Sri! This is the second book on the Bible I have read that he wrote, his style is straightforward, no frills, easy to comprehend, but scholarly. He always has fresh insights for me. This introduction to the Bible is great! It explains clearly why you must read scripture carefully, in context and within the teaching authority of the Church. I never really thought about how much orthodox dogma informs our study of sacred text. Thank you Edward Sri, for showing us the light of Christ in the Bible.

This book is encouraging for people who want to start studying the Bible the way Catholics should. The end of the book have good resources like using a commentary, The Catechism of the Catholic Church and a good concordance. If you don't have those to help you understand it's worth buying good ones.

The information in this guide is helpful in teaching how to study the Bible. It also helped me understand why the Catholic version has additional books and where they came from.

I was intrigued by the title and loved the content. it helps one study the Bible in new ways by providing Five Keys: Author's Intention; Unity of Scripture; Within the Living Tradition; within Symphony of God's Revelation; Using the Four Senses of Scripture. There is so much more in the book, including Lectio Divina. Only after finishing the kindle version of the book did I notice that it was written by Edward Sri. No wonder it was so deep and I enjoyed it so much.

Am using the book as an introduction to Scripture for my "continuity of religion" course. We are covering this short book in the first 8 lessons of the academic year. The style and level of scholarship are introductory, but the cited references allow it to be used in a serious study. It contains the basics, relying heavily on the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The translation used is RSV; not my favorite. However, since the relevant verses are referenced, I can refer my students to the Rheims-Douay, the 1970 NAB, or interlinears and lexicons as appropriate. Since this is my first time using the book, I may return to modify this review after completing Lesson 8.

Like most Catholics of my generation who were born into Catholic families I had a very poor grounding of the Bible. I knew readings from the Old and New Testaments but had very little idea of who the characters of the Old Testament were. This little book is a great introduction both for those who are exploring Catholicism for the first time as well as for old codgers like myself who would like to know a little more about my faith. Knowing the complexity and scale of the Bible it would have been a might challenge summarizing this short guide and succeeding is making it very readable.

This little book is a very good guide into helping understand scripture. Of course the author Edward Scri is a reliable Catholic teacher which make the reader more confident with the context of this book.

So great!

Interesting but not very inspiring short book.