St Mary Redcliffe Church Parish Magazine - December 2015 -January 2016

Simon J. Taylor. How to Read the Bible
(without switching off your Brain). S.P.C.K
Publishing. 130 pages. £9.99.
Reviewed by Philip Burnett
To many at St Mary Redcliffe the author and some of the topics
covered in this book will be familiar. Simon Taylor was Priest-in-
Charge at Redcliffe from 2006 – 2012, before he was appointed
Canon Chancellor of Derby Cathedral, a position he still holds. The
origins of his latest publication, How to Read the Bible (without
switching off your Brain) lie in Bible study discussions which he held at
St Mary Redcliffe.
Those who did not know Simon, or who were not able to attend his
sessions on the Bible can now benefit from his breadth of knowledge
about the Bible, as he shares his insights into what it holds, through
this stimulating book.
This is an ambitious book, not least because of the subject with
which it deals. The Bible is a hotly-contested text, from which the full
spectrum of Christian believers, and non-believers, draw their
arguments about religion and belief. Simon Taylor offers in his book a
systematic, sensible, but also rigorous approach for reading the Bible.
As the back cover proclaims ‘Bible reading is for everyone.’
The style of writing is easy and engaging. Taylor, as many know, is an
accomplished theologian and academic, but his writing is never
poncey, flowery, or obfuscatory. He never flaunts his learning in
obscure theological jargon, yet this book does not lack intellectual
rigour. It exudes the sense that it’s written by someone who knows
what he’s writing about.
And indeed he does, for Taylor, in 130 pages, seems to manage to
cover everything. Readers of this book (and it would make a good
Christmas present) should not expect to know everything about the
Bible or experience a ‘Damascene’ revelation of understanding upon
reaching page 130. The Bible is a book which has been debated,
contested, translated, and interpreted for thousands of years.