For Immediate Release Contact: Jana Muntsinger, MMPR
281.251.0480
Conversations: The Message
With Its Translator
Special Annotated
Edition of The Message Releases September 2007
More
than 11 million copies of The Message have sold since 1991, making it one of the most popular modern
translations of the Bible. Now, NavPress is
introducing the first annotated edition of The Message with special excerpts,
contemplations, sermons and essays from the translator Eugene Peterson. Conversations:
The Message With Its Translator (NavPress, September 2007) combines the full text of The
Message with annotations mined from the richness of Peterson’s experience
as translator, pastor and lifelong Christ-follower.
Conversations: The Message With
Its Translator varies
dramatically from other study Bibles and annotated Bibles. Rather than
encouraging readers to methodically study God’s Word, this new edition of The
Message teaches readers how to read the Bible contemplatively. Kent Wilson,
NavPress Bible Publisher, explains, “Many Christians
have been taught to dissect and examine scripture, but this is not the best or
only way to read the Bible. Eugene
Peterson has always encouraged readers to engage with the biblical story, to
walk inside it, to consider its meaning. Now Conversations offers
Peterson’s notes and a unique glimpse into his own contemplative style of
reading scripture. Readers are invited
to view God’s Word from his unique, fresh perspective.”
Many of
the excerpts and essays have not been published anywhere else but in Conversations. Throughout Conversations, there are
contemplative devotional sections, called “Contemplations,” containing specific
thematic scripture readings, contemplative questions
and an extensive, open-ended prayer.
Each section is designed to illuminate the truth of the scripture and
the application of the Bible story.
Every book has an introduction with its historical and theological
importance. In the back of Conversations,
there is an extensive index to all the notes within the Bible. Readers will also
find a bibliography of Peterson’s writings.
“Our
conversations with each other are sacred,” writes Peterson in the foreword to
these Conversations. “Those that take place in the parking lot after Sunday
worship are as
much a part of the formation of Christian character as
the preaching from the sanctuary pulpit…The conversations I would like to have
with you are more casual than formal—the kinds of conversations we would have
if we walked through the mountains together, stopping here and there to catch
our breath. We’ll travel a lot of terrain together, some of it breathtakingly
scenic, some of it ploddingly plain, and some of it precariously
uncertain. Here and there along the way
I’ll point out details in the biblical landscape, drawing attention to a
particular word, pointing out a pertinent piece of historical background, pausing
a moment to talk with you and to lead you in prayer.”
Adding
to the richness of Conversations is the wealth of experience, education and wisdom
that Peterson provides through his notes.
For more than 35 years, Peterson has been in pastoral ministry, actively
leading a congregation in Maryland for 29 years. Peterson has also taught numerous courses at
New York Theological Seminar, Pittsburgh Seminary, and most recently at Regent
College in Vancouver, British Columbia.
NavPress Project Editor Ken Gire explains
that Conversations
provides insight into what it is like to sit under Eugene’s preaching and
teaching as he opens the Word of God to others. “Since most of us have never
had the opportunity to hear Eugene preach at his church in Maryland, or take
one of his classes at Regent College in Canada, or to converse with him on the
mountain trails he hikes in Montana, the next best thing to being with him in
those ways is to be with him in this way—through the words he has written,
which come from a lifetime of conversations with God, so many of which were
prompted by his time in the Scriptures.”
“It’s my
personal joy to come alongside you in the wondrous and perilous journey that is
your life, and my pastoral privilege to walk with you through the Scriptures,”
writes Peterson. “I come as a guide as well as a fellow traveler.”
Peterson
wrote the first draft of what eventually became The Message for a Sunday School class at the church he founded in Bel
Air, Maryland. The Message New Testament
was released in 1991 and immediately caused a stir for its unique, earthy tone
and fresh use of language. The Message has won praise from diverse readers—from the
Protestant contemplative Richard J. Foster to football coach Bill McCartney,
and from theologian J. I. Packer to rock star Bono.
Eugene
Peterson is an author, scholar, poet and ordained minister. He has written more than 20 books including A Long Obedience in the Same Direction
and Leap Over A
Wall; but he is most known for his modern language translation of the
Bible, The Message. Peterson lives with his wife in rural Montana. The Petersons have three children and six
grandchildren.
NavPress is the publishing arm of The Navigators, an
interdenominational, non-profit organization dedicated to coming alongside
people one-to-one to study the Bible, to develop a deepening prayer life, and
to memorize and apply Scripture. The
Navigators began more than 70 years ago as an outreach to sailors in the U.S.
Navy. Now, tens of thousands of people
worldwide are coming to know and grow in Jesus Christ through the various
ministries of The Navigators. Internationally, more than 4,000 Navigator staff
of 64 nationalities serve in more than 100
countries. The Navigators also publishes
many award-winning magazines including Discipleship
Journal, Pray! and
Pray!Kids.
# # #
July 1, 2007
Conversations:
The Message With Its Translator
By Eugene Peterson
Price: Hardback $39.99, Leatherlook,
$69.99
Pages: 2,016
Trim size: 6 x 9 3/16
Release Date: September 2007
Formats: Hardcover and Leatherlook
Hardback ISBN: 1576839591, ISBN-13:
9781576839591
Leatherlook
ISBN: 1600061990, ISBN-13: 9781600061998
For sample chapters, contact Jana
Muntsinger, McClure Muntsinger Public Relations:
281-251-0480, jana@mmpublicrelations.com