<P>“Personal and accessible . . . <I>The Rise and Fall of the Bible</I> is Beal's attempt to shatter this popular understanding of the Bible as a combination of divine instruction manual and self-help book.”—Adam Kirsch, <I>Tablet</I></p> <p>In this revelatory exploration, a noted religion scholar and former evangelical Christian takes us back to early Christianity to ask how a box of handwritten scrolls became the Bible, and forward to see how the multibillion-dollar business that has brought us Biblezines and manga Bibles is selling down the Bible's sacred capital. Among his surprising insights:</p> <p>*Christianity thrived for centuries without any Bible. Early congregations used collections of scrolls; there was no official canon of scriptures and no book existed that was big enough to hold them.<br>*The idea of the Bible as the literal Word of God is only about a century old.<br>*There is no “original” Bible behind the thousands of Bibles on the market today. The further back we go in the Bible's history, the more versions we find. <p></P> <p>In <I>The Rise and Fall of the Bible</I> Beal offers a chance to rediscover a Bible, and a faith, that is truer to its own history—not a book of answers but a library of questions.</p> <p>“Part autobiography, part social scientific research, part shrewd discernment, and part theological interpretation—Tim Beal has written a zinger of a book about the cultural history of the Bible. This welcome and important book will cause a pause before we make glib claims for 'the Word of the Lord.'” —Walter Brueggemann</p> <p>“Beal . . . makes a compelling case against the idea of a fully consistent and unerring book, positing instead a very human volume with all the twists and foibles of the human experience, truly reflecting that human experience. He presents a convincing case for a radical rereading of the text, an honest appreciation of this sacred book. An engrossing and excellent work, highly recommended.”—<I>Publishers Weekly</I>, starred review