Revelations: Personal Responses to the Books of the Bible

A.J. Pell is editor of the Canadian Evangelical Review, an instructor of
Liturgy in the Anglican Studies Program at Regent College, Vancouver,
and pastor of the Church of the Resurrection in Hope, B.C.

The roots of this volume lie in The Pocket Canons published by Canongate
Books in Britain, a series of books featuring the text of various books
of the Bible, for which well-known secular writers (P.D. James, Doris
Lessing, A.N. Wilson, for example) were commissioned to write
introductions. Soon after, Grove Press published the Canons in North
America, adding introductions by authors on the west side of the
Atlantic (e.g., E.L. Doctorow, Thomas Cahill, Kathleen Norris). An
exception is the introduction to the Epistle of James written by the
Dalai Lama. All the introductions from both editions are included in
this volume, along with three introductions from various international
editions (Benjamin Prado, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Ray Loriga, all in
translation). Richard Holloway, retired Bishop of Edinburgh, provides an
introduction to the collection.

It would appear that Canongate’s intention has been to sell books
rather than to inform readers. Choosing to include popular musicians
such as Bono and Nick Cave makes that point. Certainly some essays can
be helpful to a thoughtful reader (such as A.N. Wilson’s introduction
to Matthew’s gospel and P.D. James’s introduction to the Acts of the
Apostles); but others seem calculated (Alasdair Gray’s opposition to
John Major looms large in his introduction to the prophets Jonah, Micah,
and Nahum). Overall, the collected introductions are uneven and
idiosyncratic, and thus not really worth the reader’s effort.