Scholarly yet accessible, Jonathan Rowland's Befriending Scripture invites us to consider what it might look like to think with Scripture rather than against it. In suggesting we become more Christlike readers of the Bible, he does not sidestep the difficult questions involved in doing so responsibly in today's world. The prose is energetic, the mood is upbeat and the enthusiasm for the task is infectious.

Alison Jack, Professor of Bible and Literature and Principal of New College School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh, UK

"Let us befriend Scripture." With these words Jonathan Rowlands invites all Christian readers, and not only academic scholars, into a proper relationship with the word of the Lord delivered to the church by the embassy of the apostles and prophets. Because "Christ is alive," all is changed-not just readers but reading, not just texts but meaning, not just history but historiography. Rowlands calls it "resurrection historiography." This book is a rousing call to unapologetic and thorough-going but not uncritical theological interpretation of Holy Scripture as the church's book. Which is to say, as the book of the Spirit of Christ. I hope Rowlands finds a hearing in both theology and biblical studies and not a few eavesdroppers beyond those disciplines. He deserves it, because this is a major contribution to academic, ecclesial, and theological hermeneutics.

Brad East, Associate Professor of Theology, Abilene Christian University, USA

Befriending Scripture rightly raises questions about the cultures of reading that sustain hermeneutical theories and fund methods of biblical exegesis, in particular, theological interpretation. I welcome Rowlands's suggestion that Christian readers adopt a congenial rather than critical posture towards the Scriptures more in keeping with its Sache – its subject matter, namely, the active living subject Jesus Christ – and with their own aspiration to Christlikeness.

Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Research Professor of Systematic Theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, USA