Renovare Spiritual Formation Study Bible-NRSV

What do you get when you mix the life-application practicality of a devotional Bible with the expertise and commentary of a study Bible and the user-friendly graphics of an illustrated Bible? The result might look very much like this outstanding resource. Foster, author of the modern Christian classic Celebration of Discipline, and Willard, who wrote The Divine Conspiracy, spearheaded a team of more than 50 scholars, pastors, theologians and others over five years to produce a Bible that is devoted to spiritual formation. (Brueggemann and Peterson led the teams on the Old and New Testaments, respectively, using the New Revised Standard Version.) Foster writes an introductory note explaining the team's basic mission: to provide ""a resource for approaching the Bible through the lens of Christian spiritual formation."" An opening essay encourages readers to see the entire Bible as ""the unfolding story of God's plan for how we can have an intimate love relationship with our Creator,"" while 15 other essays speak to various aspects and stages of that relationship, from exile and travail to Christ's coming and the future hope of eternity. The editors also include spiritual exercises, profiles of key biblical figures and discussions of how those individuals practiced spiritual disciplines like prayer and worship. Christians of many different traditions will appreciate this ecumenical resource devoted to spiritual renewal.