Approach­ing the Bible that God might use it to trans­form us, rather than insist­ing that it cater to our own needs and per­spec­tives — this is exact­ly the idea behind Life with God, Richard J. Foster’s much-antic­i­pat­ed book on the Bible. Writ­ten with Kathryn A. Helmers, Richard claims that God has so super­in­tend­ed the writ­ing of Scrip­ture that it serves as the most reli­able guide for Chris­t­ian spir­i­tu­al formation. 

The Bible is all about human life ​“with God.” So as we read Scrip­ture, we should con­sid­er how exact­ly God is with us in each sto­ry — and allow our­selves to be spir­i­tu­al­ly trans­formed. By open­ing our whole selves — mind, body, spir­it; thoughts, behav­ior, will — to the open page before us, as Fos­ter and Helmers show us to do, we begin to grasp all the Bible has to teach about prayer, obe­di­ence, com­pas­sion, virtue, and grace — and apply it to our every­day lives to achieve a deep­er rela­tion­ship with God. 

With a wealth of exam­ples and sim­ple yet cru­cial insights, Life with God is an indis­pens­able guide to approach­ing the Bible through the lens of Chris­t­ian spir­i­tu­al for­ma­tion, reveal­ing that read­ing the Bible for inte­ri­or trans­for­ma­tion is a far dif­fer­ent endeav­or than read­ing the Bible for his­tor­i­cal knowl­edge, lit­er­ary appre­ci­a­tion, or reli­gious instruction.

2010