Kasey

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The Bard and the Bible: A Shakespeare Devotional

by Bob Hostetler (Goodreads Author)

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Kasey said: " The Bard and the Bible is a delightful devotional! Bob Hostetler has done a masterful job allowing the writings of Shakespeare to be in conversation with passages from the King James Bible. Toss in his humor and I kept thinking with each page, “Wow, The Bard and the Bible is a delightful devotional! Bob Hostetler has done a masterful job allowing the writings of Shakespeare to be in conversation with passages from the King James Bible. Toss in his humor and I kept thinking with each page, “Wow, I wish he had taught me Shakespeare back in high school!” His summaries make the passages come alive so any reader no matter how limited their knowledge of either will be able to understand and enjoy both.

Little morsels of historical and modern tidbits and trivia tease the taste buds. How fun to learn of hairstyles in the day of Shakespeare and how often dogs and cats appeared in his writings! I couldn't help but share these with my young children, knowing that someday when they are studying Shakespeare they may remember one of these random, fun facts. I also enjoyed learning how many modern words and phrases, like “hurried” and “a dish fit for the gods,” have their roots in Shakespearean plays.

My least favorite part of the devotional was the reflection question. The overall tone of these (there were exceptions) seemed to be “try harder to be or do better.” Often the question begins with, “How can you make, do, practice, speak...” For instance on March 16th, “How can you live, work and play with greater energy?” My personality bent plays right into reforming myself with doing and being better, and in my experience, it may bring greater behavior modification (and guilt), but little transformation of heart (which brings true freedom). However, I know this is a common approach in many Christian devotionals. I wondered if there might have been a different way of inviting the reader into the conversation with Shakespeare and KJ. In lieu of it, I entered into a kind of Lectio Divina with the reading for each day.

All in all, a very enjoyable devotional that I will certainly recommend to my Shakespeare-loving friends (and anyone looking for a unique way to converse with Scripture)!

I received a free copy in exchange for my honest and fair review. ...more "

Aug 29, 2016 04:51PM · see review