Contents “Living and Active:” The Bible’s Claims for Its Effects...
Read MoreThe Official Leland Ryken Website
This site is preserving the works of a legend. With over 60 books that teach about the Bible as a literary work, Dr. Leland Ryken’s passion for the Word of God is being preserved and presented to Bible readers who have this same love.
This site is still in development. Resources have not yet been made into a format where visitors can easily access courses and download books. Keep watching this space so that you’ll see when these resources become available.
Bible as Literature
The Bible is a literary work. Learn through this site how this impacts Bible reading.
Bible Resources
Learn the Bible as Literature through the Dr. Ryken’s own writings.
The Ryken Library
The official library of Dr. Ryken preserves his works to edify the body of Christ.
About Dr. Leland Ryken
I have been a college teacher of literature for over half a century. My entire teaching career has been at Wheaton College, located in Wheaton, Illinois.
I have taught and written on a wide range of subjects, but the topic for which I am best known is the Bible as literature. I have authored some sixty books, nearly half of them on the literary nature of the Bible.
Many of my essays and addresses on the Bible as literature now reside in the Leland Ryken Library of online resources and will be available to you soon.
Dr. Leland Ryken - Author & Professor
Reading The Bible as Literature
The concept of the Bible as literature fits naturally with an evangelical view of the Bible. The literary study of the Bible should begin where every other study of the Bible begins – by accepting as true everything that biblical writers say about Holy Scripture, including its inspiration by God and its infallibility.
What does it mean to say the Bible is literature?
To say that the Bible is largely a book of literature means that the content of the Bible is presented by means of literary genres and techniques. The Bible’s content is unique, but the forms in which that content comes to us are familiar literary ones. A literary analysis of the Bible approaches a biblical text in line with its literary nature. In particular, a literary approach to the Bible is committed to close reading of specific texts. Such close reading is based on the assumptions that God inspired everything that biblical authors put into their works, and that everything.
– By Dr. Leland Ryken
How do I read the Bible as literature?
To say that the Bible is largely a book of literature means that the content of the Bible is presented by means of literary genres and techniques. The Bible’s content is unique, but the forms in which that content comes to us are familiar literary ones. A literary analysis of the Bible approaches a biblical text in line with its literary nature. In particular, a literary approach to the Bible is committed to close reading of specific texts. Such close reading is based on the assumptions that God inspired everything that biblical authors put into their works, and that everything.
– By Dr. Leland Ryken
Do I need to read the Bible as literature?
In any sphere of life, we need to deal with things in keeping with their nature. We eat salad with a fork because salad requires a fork rather than a spoon. Because the Bible is mainly a literary book, we need to read it with literary tools of analysis. As C. S. Lewis famously said, “There is a . . . sense in which the Bible, since it is after all literature, cannot properly be read except as literature; and the different parts of it as the different sorts of literature they are.”
– By Dr. Leland Ryken
Bible Resources
These Bible Resources are an effort by HELPS Ministries to preserve the essays, public addresses, and teaching materials that Dr. Ryken has accumulated during his half century as a professor, writer, and speaker. This is to ensure they continue to edify the body of Christ by teaching about the Bible as Literature and how this impacts the Bible reader and their reading. The most important themes of these resources are as follows:
- theoretic statements on why a literary approach to the Bible is necessary
- explanation of the methods of literary analysis of the Bible
- information about all the genres of writing found in the Bible
- literary analysis of texts found in the Bible
- in all of these specific endeavors, the goal is to make readers competent in literary analysis of the Bible
The Bible as Literature and Expository Preaching
Contents: The Bible as Literature The Idea of “the Bible...
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Fallacies about Expository Preaching
Contents: Fallacy #1. Expository preaching consists of running commentary or...
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Understanding the Concept of the Bible as Literature
Contents: What Does It Mean that the Bible Is Literature?...
Read MoreThe Discovery Bible
The Discovery Bible is available as a software and in print format. It is a primarily a language tool for the Bible that enables Bible readers to read an English Bible, yet still understand the meaning within the original languages of the Bible – namely Greek and Hebrew. In regards to the Bible as Literature, The Discovery Bible’s primary features take Bible readers to new literary levels through its primary features of Emphasis, Action Symbols and Word Studies.
“All literary analysis of the Bible consists primarily of close reading of biblical texts. The resources that aid such analysis are not limited to literary scholarship. Literary scholars can incorporate many of the tools and insights of traditional biblical scholarship. The Discovery Bible coordinates with literary analysis by providing lexical information that can inform any close reading of a biblical text.”
– Dr. Leland Ryken