Be astonished, an author interview
Brian Russell talks about his new book, *Astonished by the Word*
Gentle reader,
Today, I’m delighted to bring you an interview with Brian Russell, who talked with us about his new book Astonished by the Word: Reading Scripture for Deep Transformation (193 pages, Invite Press).
The interview follows:
BFJ: The book is titled Astonished by the Word. Can you tell us about the word “astonished”?
BR: Astonish is one of my favorite words. I’ve been praying, “Lord, astonish me anew with the riches of your Word” for close to twenty years now and passing on this prayer to those whom I’ve had the privilege to serve through preaching and teaching. There are many ways to be astonished in life, but I desire to be astonished by God and I’ve found Scripture to be a consistent pathway to experiencing this astonishment.
I need to give credit to both Thomas Merton and Ellen Davis for first putting the word “astonished” on my radar in relationship to Scripture. In Opening the Bible, Merton wrote, “It is of the very nature of the Bible to affront, perplex and astonish the human mind” (11). In Wondrous Depth: Preaching the Old Testament, Davis’ first chapter is called “The Art of Astonishing.” I love this quotation from Davis,
“But the plain fact is that no preacher can ever be astonishing (in the positive sense!) unless she has first been astonished. And the only regular and fully reliable source of astonishment for the Christian preacher is Scripture itself” (2).
I want to come away from Scripture, not merely having put a check next to a box in my daily devotion practice, but with a sense that God truly spoke a powerful word. In Psalm 1, the psalmist talks about taking delight in the Torah. I want to cultivate an inner life that delights in the Word. The prayer I shared above captures my desire. As a writer, teacher, and preacher of Scripture, I agree with Davis that I need to be astonished as a precondition to sharing an insight that may be astonishing to others.
BFJ: I love the way the cover suggests that we dive into scripture. What does the cover mean to you?
BR: I love the cover too. As the author, I am grateful for the artist who designed it, but I can take no credit for it. My favorite aspect is the star filled skies above the open Word of God. To me the image evokes the expansive world that Scripture opens up for us as well as how Scripture connects heaven and earth.
BFJ: I love that answer. Why did you write ABW?
BR: I wrote Astonished by the Word to help people to go even deeper into the Scriptures than perhaps they've experienced previously. The goal is transformation rather than mere information. I want to cultivate an expectation of openness and astonishment for the good news that permeates Scripture when we open ourselves fully to its message. The Bible is an inspired book, but it is not a magical book. To experience its true riches requires us to surrender our biases, blind spots and even favorite readings in order to allow the Spirit to create anew a sense of astonishment that I've noticed always precedes true transformation. The ideas in Astonished by the Word have been trench tested by me in my spiritual journey as well as in the communities with whom I’ve had the privilege to read and study Scripture.
BFJ: Give us the short version: what’s the book about?
BR: Astonished by the Word explores a method of reading that opens us to the intention articulated by St. Augustine in On Christian Teaching:
“So anyone who thinks that he has understood the divine scriptures or any part of them, but cannot by his understanding build up this double love of God and neighbor, has not yet succeeded in understanding them.”
Augustine reminds us that we only truly understand the Bible when we can articulate and then embody what a particular text teaches us about loving God and neighbor.
Of course, the challenge is being open to the areas in our life where this transformation is presently lacking...
Here is the layout of Astonished by the Word:
First, in Part One, we explore models for understanding Scripture as revelation to us for living a life of love for God and neighbor. The goal is to describe how Scripture works in our lives and to begin to explore why we may struggle in reading it for deep spiritual formation.
In Part Two, we confront head on the issue of idolatry and the role of the unconscious in blocking the work of the Spirit in our lives. We explicitly explore how our brokenness, shame, bias and sin seeks to thwart God’s work of deep personal and societal transformation.
In Part Three, I model a way of reading that I believe honors Augustine’s intention and hopefully serves you in your personal growth in love for God and neighbor. I share how to apply the principles from Part one and Part two in your own reading of Scripture by offering interpretations of selected passages in both the Old and New Testaments.
BFJ: Share a detail you’re fond of from the book?
BR: My favorite passage in the book is this one:
“The challenge is to allow Scripture to confront us before applying it to others. Here’s a not so fun lesson that I’ve learned as I’ve gotten older. Whenever I read a text and it immediately brings to mind someone else who needs to be practicing its message, it’s actually a signal that the someone is I” (91–92).
This quotation is from a larger section in which I offer a fresh way of reading Scripture that I call “Idolatherapy.” Idolatherapy is a word that I’ve coined sort of tongue in cheek to describe the painful (but deeply sanctifying) work that the Spirit can do in our lives through a contemplative reading of the Bible. Idolatherapy is the part of the book where I explore our inner blockages, blindspots, hurts and even sins that hinder us from leaning fully in to the love of God and neighbor.
BFJ: How does the book connect to and go beyond your other work?
BR: Astonished by the Word connects two of the key emphases of my previous three books. Invitation: A Bible Study to Begin With (Seedbed, 2015) and (re)Aligning with God: Reading Scripture for Church and Word (Cascade Books, 2016) focused on the biblical narrative as a whole. I wrote Invitation specifically to serve small groups and introduce them to the grand narrative of Scripture through the themes of mission, holiness and community. (re)Aligning with God teaches my missional approach to Scripture and suggests ways to teach and preach the Bible in order to implement a mission centered ethos in local communities of faith. Centering Prayer: Sitting Quietly in God’s Presence Can Change Your Life (Paracelete, 2021) is my most personal book and marked a major shift in my writing and thinking. I wrote it to describe how I emerged out of my dark season of the soul through my embrace of contemplative spiritual formation practices. Astonished by the Word is my mature reflection on reading Scripture in light of my ongoing commitment to the mission of God in the world and the importance of the deep inner work that I’ve discovered God needs to do in my life.
BFJ: What do people mistakenly assume when they hear about your book?
BR: Since I’m a professor of Biblical studies, some people may assume that Astonished by the Word will contain academic jargon and be difficult to read. However, I pride myself in producing readable and practical books and resources. I've worked intentionally to develop a writing style that is accessible to any interested reader. I've rewritten my last few books multiple times to make them clear and easy to read without losing the richness and depth of the subject matter.
BFJ: How does the book relate to your experience of teaching and discipleship?
BR: Astonished by the Word contains my best thinking about discipleship from the last 30 years of ministry as a pastor of three different churches during the 90s and early 2000s, as a seminary professor for 24 years, and as a coach for pastors. I am committed to helping churches become communities of disciple making disciples. My mentor Alex McManus engrained in me this idea: “The Gospel comes to us on its way to someone else.” We convey the Gospel not merely with right ideas from Scripture but with right living that points to the God who loves us. Unfortunately, I’ve noticed in my personal journey as well as from being an observer of life that it is sometimes easier to have the right ideas than to embody moment by moment a transformed life. Astonished by the Word focuses on the inner work of the Spirit in transforming readers of Scripture into persons who can live as the hands, feet, and mouthpieces of the good news about God.
BFJ: Are there difficulties in the spiritual life that your book can help to address?
BR: I believe the core challenge in the spiritual life is the same one faced by Old Testament Israel and the New Testament church: idolatry. The deep work that God desires is for all of us to elevate Jesus as Lord while simultaneously de-elevating all other entities, ideologies, people and institutions that falsely call for our allegiance and devotion. Scripture is easily co-opted. My hope in writing Astonished by the Word is to call folks back to core message of Scripture: transformation in the love of God and neighbor for the sake of God’s mission in the world.
Brian Russell is professor of biblical studies at Asbury Theological Seminary
BFJ: If you could gift everyone with one insight from the book, what would it be?
BR: I’ll simply share the beginning of Chapter Eleven:
Long ago, I recognized that the primary purpose of reading the Bible is conversion. I’m talking about my own conversion first and then the conversion of others to whom I have the privilege of teaching or preaching or sharing the Gospel. If I haven’t personally been converted to the message of the text, I risk playing the Pharisee and imposing on others ideals and standards that I myself don’t follow.
What does it mean to convert to the message of the text? It means listening to Scripture for what it demands of my life and then realigning myself with it. It involves praying for deep astonishment and illumination so that I can be sensitive to my blind spots and glaring areas of hypocrisy. It involves risking being open to surprise attacks from the text on our sense of holiness (p. 119).
If my writing can serve as a reminder of and model for our ongoing need for conversion and realignment with God, I will have accomplished my intention in writing Astonished by the Word. Of course, I must continue to take my own medicine too. :)
BFJ: May God prosper that intention! How has your spiritual life and prayer life changed as you’ve matured?
BR: I love this question. I’ll start with my prayer life. I spend more time in prayer daily than I probably spent weekly in previous decades. The reason for this is my embrace of contemplative spirituality especially silent meditative prayer. I covered my journey into this practice in Centering Prayer: Sitting Quietly in God's Presence Can Change Your Life. My wife and I start each day with 15–20 minutes of centering prayer. I will typically do additional mini sessions (2–5 minutes) during breaks in the morning and afternoon as well as before I transition to bed at night. Also I practice the Prayer of Examen daily (spiritual journaling) as way of learning to pray through intentional reflection of my day.
I’m slowly saying good-bye to my old anxious, always in a hurry self and embracing a moment-by-moment walk with God. I’m starting to understand what another of my mentors and former colleague Bob Tuttle taught me: “The secret of the spiritual life is this: show up, pay attention, know that God has way more invested in this than you do.”
BFJ: What would your 10-year-old self say if he learned you’d grow up to write about this stuff?
BR: He’d probably joke, “Good job big Brian! What took you so long?” The truth is that when I was in elementary school I already wanted to be a researcher and writer. I loved reading war stories and wanted to be a World War 2 historian of the Pacific theater. I imagined myself writing books. I always say that I’m one of the fortunate ones who grew up to do the type of worked I dreamed to do as a young person. I still love to read, study and share my learning with others. My focus simply shifted to the deepest truths about God rather than military history.
BFJ: Besides ABW, what are your top reading recommendations for folks who want to think more deeply about these matters? Why do you recommend them?
BR: I’d suggest the following books for the spiritual side of reading Scripture. Each of these influenced the type of thinking that led me to write Astonished by the Word. I’ve used all of these in my teaching except for Augustine's work.
Augustine, On Christian Teaching (Oxford World’s Classics; Oxford University Press, 1997).
Ellen Davis, Wondrous Depth: Preaching the Old Testament (Westminster John Knox, 2005)
Thomas Merton, Opening the Bible (Liturgical Press, 1970).
M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., Shaped by the Word (Rev. Ed; Upper Room, 2001).
Eugene Peterson, Eat this Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading (Eerdmans, 2009).
I’d also highly recommend the following two books as introductions to learning the skills and mechanics of interpreting Scripture through inductive bible study. The Bauer/Traina text is a deep dive. Thompson’s book is an overview designed specifically for non-specialists.
David Bauer and Robert Traina, Inductive Bible Study: A Comprehensive Guide to the Practice of Hermeneutics (Baker Academic, 2014).
David Thompson, Bible Study that Works (Francis Asbury Press, 2000).
The following is an excerpt from Astonished by the Word, ©Brian Russell, 2023, all rights reserved.
In On Christian Teaching, Augustine wrote, “So anyone who thinks that he has understood the divine scriptures or any part of them, but cannot by his understanding build up this double love of God and neighbor, has not yet succeeded in understanding them.”
For Augustine, the goal of biblical interpretation is the ongoing conversion of the Bible’s readers into persons who love God and others. Most of us likely desire this transformation. We want to be perfected in love. We intend to live fully as the people who God created us to be.
We also recognize that being filled with love is central to the work of the Holy Spirit. In Rom 5:5, Paul writes, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” In Gal 5:22–23, Paul lists the fruits of the Spirit as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Arguably love is the principal fruit, and the others are facets of love.
Augustine’s model seems simple. But it is not easy to implement. At least, it hasn’t been easy for me. If it were easy, we would not witness the ongoing failures of many Christ-followers to uphold the character of Jesus. Likewise, we would not see the struggles of the church especially in the formerly Christian West to reach emerging generations with the gospel. Too many people equate Christians with hate and exclusion rather than love and inclusion.
Yet the Bible describes a world in which God has created a holy people for himself for the sake of the world. How is it that sometimes Scripture appears ineffective in creating a deep transformation that allows the church consistently to be known by love?
From my personal experience as well as my engagement with students, pastors, and spiritual leaders, I believe a principal obstacle to achieving Augustine’s vision is our inability to move past our biases and blind spots. We may read Scripture, but I wonder if we allow it to read us. Are we really open to the work God desires to do deep within?
Most of us would instinctively say, “Yes.” But the true mark of openness to Scripture is how we respond to those parts of the Bible that question our way of life rather than someone else’s. What might we be missing simply because our eyes and ears are trained to see and hear only certain truths and to pass over others?
Let’s go back to Augustine. He advocated a beautiful intention for our engagement with Scripture: growth in love for God and neighbor. But there’s a catch. To grow in love for God and neighbor we must be willing to face the parts of ourselves that don’t align with this intention. It’s easy to see this lack in others, but it’s painful to discover it inside ourselves.
To grow in love for God and neighbor we must explore its opposite. The opposite of loving God is not hating God. It’s indifference or apathy. Any cursory reading of the Bible will awaken us to the difficulties God’s people had in remaining faithful. By indifference, I don’t mean that we don’t care about our relationship with God. It’s more subtle. We have a space in our hearts that belongs fully to God, but there are plenty of rooms inside that belong to competing ideas. But anything that competes for our allegiance with God is a form of idolatry. So, to grow in love for Jesus we need to be willing to allow God through the Spirit to probe our hearts with Scripture to show us areas where we do not truly love God.
The same is true for growth in love for our neighbor. The opposite of loving neighbor is not hatred; it’s a lack of concern for others. Most Christians don’t openly desire evil for others. More often it is a subtle turning of our heads or closing our eyes to injustice.
Loving our neighbor involves a desire to do right for them. It’s a commitment to justice. It’s easy to love those who love us. But what of those who don’t? Jesus tangibly extended love even to those who crucified him. What more powerful demonstration is there than Jesus’s words on the cross: “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). Moreover, Jesus always seemed to have the ability to see those in need around him. Scripture wants to stretch us by helping us to develop eyes to see the invisible other in our lives. Are we willing to be challenged anew by the question that Jesus asked in the parable of the Good Samaritan: “Which … was a neighbor to the man?” (Luke 10:36).
To allow Scripture to do its work we must hear the positive descriptions of love for God and neighbor in the texts we read. But we must also consent to allow the Spirit to reveal to us areas where we don’t truly love God and neighbor. Then we must find the courage to pray the ancient prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner”; and realign with the values of Jesus and his kingdom.
Are you ready to get started?
Readers can contact Brian at brian@brianrussellphd.com. For group studies with at least 10 participants, Brian is happy happy (schedule permitting) to drop in on a session via Zoom to answer questions.
Many thanks to Brian for sharing with us! Buy Astonished by the Word here.
Grace and Peace,
BFJ
This piece contains associate links.
If this piece has been good to you, I’d be grateful if you’d subscribe, comment, forward, or share.
