Symbols and Reality
A Guided Study of Prophecy, Apocalypse, and Visionary Literature
Leland Ryken
9781683591634
128 pages
Lexham Press
Overview
This is the fifth of a six-volume series called Reading the Bible as Literature. In this volume, the author not only explores the intersection of the Bible and literature, but he also shows pastors, students, and teachers of the Bible how to appreciate the craftsmanship of visionary literature and prophetic oracles and how to interpret them correctly. Dr. Ryken goes one step further than merely explaining the genre by including exercises to help students master this rich literary treasure. Speaking of the entire series, Ryken says, "The niche that these volumes are designed to fill is the literary approach to the Bible. This has been my scholarly passion for nearly half a century. It is my belief that a literary approach to the Bible is the common reader's friend, in contract to the more specialized types of scholarship on the Bible."
Author Bio
Leland Ryken (PhD, University of Oregon) is professor of English emeritus at Wheaton College, where he has taught since 1968. He is the author of more than fifty books, including How to Read the Bible as Literature (Zondervan), Words of Delight: A Literary Introduction to the Bible (Baker), Windows to the World: Literature in Christian Perspective (Wipf & Stock), Effective Bible Teaching (Baker), A Complete Handbook of Literary Forms in the Bible (Crossway), and co-editor of Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (IVP).
