Finding God in the Margins: The Book of Ruth (Transformative Word)

I too have only read the sample pages. However I do find it very informative in where the author is coming from, and find the sample pages giving me ample information on the intention of the book, a new and very different look and I hope new discoveries of the book of Ruth. We live in a world that is more confused, disheartened than ever before, a world that seems to be taring itself apart which is only making more and more people to be marginalised, becoming refugees in their own land, and in host countries around the world, and we are talking not about thousands of people but millions of people. As a Christian, i try to be as Jesus like as I possibly can, Jesus always helped the marginalised and studying the Bible helps me to better understand God' love and desire for each one of us. I am going to buy this book because the sample pages leads me to believe I will learn a different point of view of the book of Ruth. One of the reasons I believe the Holy Bible is inspired and directed by God is its ability to help us to continue learning from it, and one of the ways we do this is by learning someone else's view point. Thats the whole point of having Commentaries, so we can learn other views people have, (its so very important to read a number of commentaries to get a balance of different thoughts) and then we can decide what we believe is right at the time. But as I learn more from my studies my belief and understanding of God' word changes and all this helps my FAITH GROW and that the whole point. So I do hope this book will give me a new understanding, I do not yet know if I will agree with what I read, but I will still learn from it, and if I do disagree with it, who is to say that down the road I will not change my mind. Our faith is a living, growing faith, if it wasn't then I doubt it would be real, rather just a religion to follow. I am not a learned man, I left school at 14 years old with no qualifications and a very poor reading skill, Can I take this opportunity to thank all at FaithLife for their work. The Logos bible software has helped me enormously, to much to share here, but I just want to say thank you, my academic skills, understanding God's Word and my faith have all grown beyond my wildest dreams.

I hope this book does not politicise the holy Book of Ruth by adulterating it with modern controversial issues such as illegal immigration, open borders, and Islamist immigrants. Let us remember that during the time of Naomi and Ruth, the time when the Judges ruled Israel, nation states as political and legal concepts did not exist yet, and national boundaries were still porous and did not yet achieve its modern non porous equivalents. Be cause of that, in Israel and Moab at that time can not be said to have already existed various immigration laws that regulate the comings in and goings out of peoples. In stead, people just come and go to these lands and be twixt them, since borders were yet porous. The world is different now: we have nation states with fixed boundaries that are governed by inter national laws, and we have municipal as well as inter national immigration laws that are also in place to govern the movements of peoples from one state to an other. I would not use the holy Book of Ruth to make a political stand or create a theological stance that favours a bias for or against illegal immigration, sanctuary cities, open borders, and bans against Islamist refugees, modern issues over which clear cut laws and rules govern them in a non porous world where fixed boundaries do exist be twixt and amongst nations and nation states, and modern issues over which the sacred writer of the holy Book of Ruth never meant to write, prophesy, theologise, or opine about. Just my thoughts on these matters, and thanks for your audience regarding this.

I read though the sample pages, and it ends with the author saying, lets' get started. Now that's the part I would want to read to know whether to buy this book. I want to see how the author treats the text. This is a commentary after all.