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| The Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible (Protestant Edition) | 
| Authors: Inc. Renovare, Richard J. Foster, Rebecca Gaudino, Glandion Carney, Bill Long, Bruce Demarest, Evan Howard, James Earl Massey, Catherine Taylor
Creators: James M. Rand, Joshua Choon Min Kang, Emilie Griffin, Peter Enns, Tim Beal, Scott Ellington, William Bellinger, Marva J. Dawn, David De Silva
Publisher: Harper San Francisco
Category: Book
List Price: $39.95
Buy New: $22.38
You Save: $17.57 (44%)
New (23) from $22.38
Avg. Customer Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 43568
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 2048
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.1
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.6 x 1.9
ISBN: 0060671076
Dewey Decimal Number: 220
EAN: 9780060671075
ASIN: 0060671076
Publication Date: December 1, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Weight Lifting September 26, 2005
18 out of 27 found this review helpful
Richard Foster has always done a great job in putting together great resources for personal study and spiritual growth. Renovare has added so much to the ministry of others and of pastors for many years. The notes in the Bible have a lot to offer, but the size of this Bible makes it a Bible people will not carry with them, nor use as a portable resource. It is like having a desktop Computer...geat tool, but it stays in one place. The resource would have been far more usable as a "Bible Companion" book to be used side-by-side with most people's personal Bible.
 A great addition to the line-up August 2, 2005
8 out of 27 found this review helpful
My first impressions of the Renorare Spiritual Formation Bible are, what a great addition to the already crowded line-up of translations, study and style Bibles! I have not yet plumbed the depths of all that is available in helps to spiritual formation, but I can tell it is rich and will be an important
Bible in my future.
Don't miss this spiritual journey for the world! July 3, 2005
60 out of 68 found this review helpful
Personally, I am glad the Renovare editorial board asked those of us involved in the project to provide material that was inspirational, in-depth, thought-provoking, intricate and complex. I have never been of the opinion that Christianity ought to be reducible to a bumper sticker or a t-shirt slogan or that a Bible had to be compact and portable to be of any value. Other generations had no problem with Bibles that weighed a pound or two and had no issue with being afforded the opportunity to access copious amounts of inspirational material. They only asked that it be written with piety and integrity and that it not skate the surface. They expected to work their intellects and their spirits when they cracked open commentaries by Luther or Calvin or the Cappadocian Fathers or Matthew Henry. I believe the Renovare Study Bible lies happily within that tradition of the deeper life. It is jam-packed with essays and meditations and spiritual insights that will keep you thinking and wondering and praying and wrestling for months and years. Look, you have Walter Brueggeman of Old Testament fame, you have Eugene Peterson of The Message and Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, Virginia Stem Owens with all her wonderful literary ability, William Willimon of Duke Chapel with all his refreshing eloquence, Dallas Willard of The Divine Conspiracy, Richard Foster of Celebration of Discipline, Thomas Oden with his love of the old Christian writings, an incredible and eclectic gathering of believers spading the verdant earth of the Holy Bible. I am going through this excellent tome from cover to cover and there is lots of good stuff. They could never have included so much solid material by putting out a slimline Bible. I wouldn't miss this spiritual journey for the world. All these writers and perspectives. It works for me.
A Great Tool for Opening Up the Scriptures June 16, 2005
27 out of 38 found this review helpful
I was delighted to find Richard Foster's Renovare Bible in the public library. As a born again Catholic Pentecostal I was pleased to see the Deuterocanonical books included and the devotional commentary is helpful in opening them up. For anyone
desiring to mine the riches of unfamiliar scriptures, I heartily recommend the Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible.
 The Ariadne's Thread of the Renovare Bible June 4, 2005
80 out of 198 found this review helpful
In the foreword Richard Foster states that his new study bible is like Ariadne's thread that weaves its way through scripture. If we take him seriously, then his analogy should raise some concerns. `Ariadne's thread' is taken from mythology , the story of a girl named Ariadne who gave a thread to her lover Theseus to guide him through a house filled with innumerable paths of deceptions - so deceptive that even the builder of the Labyrinth was barely able to find his way out. If we accept Foster's analogy then the Bible is the labyrinth of deception that needs a special bible with `special guidance', like Ariadne's thread, to keep people from being lost or destroyed.
This is what the editors claim their bible will do: it "presents the bible to people in a way that does not destroy the soul.."
What is this Ariadne's thread that leads us carefully through this new bible? Richard Foster explains his bible is "unique" in that it approaches the Bible "through the lens of Christian Spiritual Formation".
All students of the bible acknowledge the need to be conformed to the image of Christ - the question seems to be `which comes first , the outward change or the inward change? Jesus taught that to clean the outside of the cup makes nothing clean but if we clean the inside the outside will be clean also . (Matt.23:26). Gal.5:16 says, "Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh". But, following the Renovare thread we find that the only way to spiritual formation is through spiritual disciplines .
These disciplines require a concentrated effort of disciplining the physical body through which the transformation of our inner self is accomplished . The editors state, "the spiritual disciplines, then are the God-ordained means by which each of us is enabled to place the little, individualized power pack ... the human body - before God...." (pg xxxiii ). Another quote from pg.2327 says "God spiritually formed his people through historical events and the practice of Spiritual Disciplines.
So while Renovare leaders insist that they do not teach `works' but "effort", and that " the disciplines put us in a place where we can receive from God" (pg2263) , the bottom line is they teach that it is through bodily works we attain an intimate relationship with God.
The Renovare thread weaving through the scripture is careful to avoid comment on passages that do not fit with their paradigm or redefines for the reader a new understanding of a familiar passage. On pg 2120 a quote reads, "Spiritual formation requires a peculiar way of interpreting scripture" .
The Renovare thread also guides us through the Deuterocanonical (apocrypha) books that are included in their bible. They may be considered valuable by the editors but these books do not compare with scripture even in the sense of being `true'. For example, in II Esdras 14:11,12, Ezra is given the time of when the end of the age will come. 1138 AD. That time has come and gone by almost a millennium, and we are still here. In Tobit , Raphael, an angel lies about who he is , his ancestry, his name and his purpose. If God's angels lie, does that teach us that lying is acceptable ?
Catholic mystics are respected and recommended guides of this thread. They are often quoted and their books listed in the recommended reading list.
The thread also has a distinct flavor of ecumenicalism and pantheism.
A couple of disturbing twists of the Renovare thread are:
1) King David is paralleled with modern mystic Thomas Merton, as men who "knew that the inner conversations with God that grow out of solitude and silence foster an ongoing life of prayer." Yet, Thomas Merton declared , "I want to be as good a Buddhist as I can be".
2) One of the comments I found particularly jarring is on pg. 2109 where Dallard Willard says , "Paul and his Lord were PEOPLE of immense power, who saw clearly ..... with calm premeditation and clear vision of a deeper order, they took their stand..... they lived lives of utter self-sacrifice and abandonment...." (emphasis mine)
If you believe II Tim 3:16 ( incidentally one of the verses the thread avoids) that says, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine , for reproof, for correction, for instruction to righteousness..") then you will not enjoy this bible. ( see also pg xxix "But the aim (of spiritual formation) is not external conformity, whether to doctrine or deed...")
but..... If you are following the mystic contemplative life, then you will probably like this bible except for a few disadvantages. The Renovare bible does not have a topical or reference index which makes it difficult to find something you read previously, and want to find again . The page numbers are down the curve of the spine so it is awkward to find a page quickly. Also it is a rather cumbersome book to hold , it is more like a textbook or a dictionary than a comfortable in-hand book.
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