The Scriptures are an essential aspect of the Christian faith. But we have often equated them with the living Word Himself, even elevating them above the One to whom they point. In doing so, we have distorted their central message—and our view of God. Tragically, this has caused multitudes of people unnecessary doubt, confusion, and pain in their encounters with the Scriptures. Many people understand God as being truly loving and good. Yet, they struggle with depictions of God in Scripture as wrathful, violent, and genocidal. These “toxic texts” have caused some to set aside their Bibles as R-rated and unreliable. They have led others to completely reject their faith. Author and theologian Bradley Jersak has wrestled deeply with such passages over many years. He has experienced the same questions, doubt, and pain. In A More Christlike Word , he offers a clarifying and freeing path forward. Whether readers consider themselves believers, doubters, or skeptics, all are invited to a more beautiful and ancient way of reading the Scriptures. Bradley calls this path the “Emmaus Way” because it demonstrates how Jesus regarded all Scripture as fulfilled in himself, the final Word of God who reveals the true nature of the Father. After deconstructing the modern biblicist/literalist approaches to Scripture interpretation that have failed us, Brad turns to the early church for a hermeneutic of prefigurement, treating the Bible as the grand narrative of redemption, told through a polyphony of voices and worldviews, culminating in the arrival of Christ as the eternal Word of God—what God has to say about himself. The interpretive system of the church fathers and mothers who gathered the New Testament and preached the gospel from the Old Testament has largely been ignored or dismissed by both evangelical and liberal movements, the twin children of modernity. The patristics explain and model the apostles’ Christ-centered interpretation of the Scriptures. Brad applies their approach to “unwrath” sample passages from each genre of the Bible, showing how even the cringe-worthy texts have an important place in the Christotelic saga of divine love. Your journey on the Emmaus Way will open up to you the fullness of the Scriptures, and, most important, lead you to the God who deeply loves and welcomes you.   [ A More Christlike Word ] is both fascinating, not that complicated (in my humble view) and yet a major release that is going to be debated, I’m sure. I hope you know this important writer.… This new book is the third in a series starting with A More Christlike God which was followed by A More Christlike Way; the first was about how best to understand God—if we want to know about God, we must see God the way God really is: namely, in the Person of Jesus Christ who perfectly reveals the Father. The second book in this series was similar: if we want to know what it means to be a Christian, we need a more beautiful way of living that is truly Christ-like. And so, naturally, this new third one follows this same schema: to understand the Bible we must understand it in light of Jesus. In all three cases, this is nothing but good Christian sense and classic, old-school theology. And, yet, as Jersak shows, in all three cases, it is an insight that is nearly revolutionary these days and not at all the way ordinary religious people usually approach these things. To see God as Christ-like, not wrathful; to see our discipleship as a Way and not a mere intellectual assertion of doctrinal claims; to see the Bible as a pointer to Jesus and His redemptive story—all are deeply right truths and (yet oddly) ripe for controversy.… [Brad Jersak is] curious and interesting and a wide-ranging thinker. And yet, A More Christlike God: Reading Scripture the Emmaus Way isn’t a heady argument but a sweet invitation to a richer, more transformative encounter with the printed page of the Bible and the living Christ who, through His Spirit, draws us into His presence through the various genres of this sacred book. (The “Emmaus” allusion is not incidental but key.)… This book will rock your world and yet it is wise and always invites us to hear Jesus, the living Word.… We are happy to recommend it. —Byron Borger Hearts & Minds Books A brilliant and compelling journey into reading Scripture as expounded by Christ himself on the road to Emmaus, gently exposing and correcting the weaknesses of many modern presuppositions and opening us up to the more wonderful mystery of a loving God. A More Christlike Word will be sure to touch the hearts of many. —Fr. John Behr Regius Chair of Humanity, University of Aberdeen, Scotland   Bradley Jersak has spent a lifetime immersed in the Scriptures. And now, with A More Christlike Word , he shares with us his hard-won insights on how to interpret the Scriptures as Christ himself did on the Emmaus road that first Easter. Of the many recent books on biblical interpretation, I find A More Christ