A must read filled with wisdom and revelation: Understanding the Bible: Head and Heart provides readers a
forum for more fully comprehending the Bible. Each book of the Bible tells a
story that relates to the larger story, and to understand each book's story it
is important to understand the larger story, and vice versa. To do so, however,
entails a careful reading of the entire Bible, grasping both the fact of the
story and the spirit of the story. Understanding the Bible: Head and Heart provides
prose summaries for helping the reader to understand and remember the fact of
the story, and poetic summaries for helping the reader to experience the story
and thereby to more readily ingest its spirit. Since Understanding the Bible:
Head and Heart would be a bit lengthy under one cover, it is divided into two
parts: Part One addresses The Old Testament, and Part Two addresses The New
Testament. This publication is Part One. Part Two is forthcoming. Bob Dowell,
English professor, retired from the University of Texas-Pan American in 1999 in
order to devote full time to a project conceived while teaching his favorite
course: "The Bible as Literature." He envisioned developing a forum
in which readers could readily engage in a head and heart understanding of the
Bible. For a decade he worked on the project all the while piloting his
production through a church sponsored bible study: "Back to the Bible with
Dr. Bob." The success of that study spoke convincingly to the efficacy of
publishing the materials for purposes of reaching a wider audience. Thus, Dr.
Bob's vision becomes a reality in the publication of Understanding the Bible:
Head and Heart. Fittingly, his first publication as a professor is an article
in College English (1965) entitled "The Moment of Grace in the Fiction of
Flannery O'Connor."
You may get your copy of Understanding the Bible at Amazon, at Barnes and Noble and other fine online
bookstores.