The Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible Book

The Renovare Spiritual Formation Bible is formatted like a lot of study Bibles. It has chapter introductions, study notes at the bottom of each page, and occasional text boxes in the midst of the text. What is different is the intent. As I understand it, this Bible is an attempt to bring a combination of contemporary Biblical scholarship and suggested spiritual practices to the reader seeking to be changed by the scripture.

All of the scriptural books are grouped in larger sections, each with an introduction on how that particular grouping of text fits into a broader scriptural narrative, which is referred to as "The With-God Life". Each book then also gets its own introduction, written by a different Biblical scholar, who I think is also responsible for the study notes within that book. This means that the commentary on each book is being written by a scholar with particular insight on it. It also means that the introductions and notes for some books stand out as much more helpful than others. My favorites were Job, Jeremiah, Amos, Matthew, Luke, Romans, Corinthians, and Hebrews. I found all of these interesting and helpful. It should be noted, though, that the notes on most of the books aren't very thorough. Unlike a more standard study Bible, there is no attempt to address every verse, or to provide help for every question. Frequently in reading the scripture, seemingly obvious questions and concerns came to mind, but when I checked the bottom of the page I found no notes addressing them. Instead, the commentators seem to have been given the liberty to comment primarily on the themes and issues that stand out most to them, or seem most relevant for encouraging the spiritual growth of the reader. Themes are definitely favored over minutia.

The Bible notes also focus a lot on spiritual disciplines. Wherever possible they highlight the disciplines described in scripture (in "Responding" sections), and there is an appendix with a list of all the disciplines they have highlighted.

The translation is the very excellent NRSV, and it includes the Deuterocanonical books (aka the Apocrypha), which I had never read before, but enjoyed exploring.

I'm not sure how to think of this Bible, or to whom to recommend it. I think I learned a lot just reading through it, and reading all the notes along the way, but that was also a major project. Previously I had been trying to read the Bible once each year, but with my desire to read all the notes and chapter introductions, along with my new role as a dad, it took me about three years to get through this one. I'm planning on going back to it as a resource in my own teaching, or when I have questions. As I said, some of the material is really good, and I definitely appreciated the overall themes and narrative structure highlighted by the editors. However, I wouldn't recommend it as a primary resource since it doesn't attempt the same thoroughness as a typical commentary or study Bible.