Exploring the challenges that both the churched and the unchurched have faced regarding giving and receiving the word of God, Bob Ekblad encourages us all to learn to read the Bible together as a whole. In this compelling book, he reflects on how Christians have often found it difficult to proclaim God's good news to every realm of society, while those who have needed it most have frequently deemed themselves unworthy due to social circumstances or sinfulness. In Reading the Bible with the Damned , Ekblad offers concrete advice on how to bridge this gap through a variety of insights ultimately leading to spiritual transformation. This book is full of examples of how Scripture changes lives for those who attend Bible studies and for those who lead them, offering practical suggestions on many passages from the Old and New Testaments. "This book by Ekblad moves the Bible away from safe, conventional church venues and reads afresh among the alienated and marginalized. The effect of such a new interpretive context is that the text takes on a poignancy and sharpness that bespeaks the stirring of God s spirit. We may be led by Ekblad to read the Bible yet again, as if for the first time." --Walter Brueggemann, Professor Emeritus, Columbia Theological Seminary, and author of several Westminster John Knox Press books, including An Introduction to the Old Testament: The Canon and Christian Imagination and Reverberations of Faith: A Theological Handbook of Old Testament Themes . "Bob Ekblad is more like Jesus than most people I know How different the world will be when more of us share Christ s life and heart in the same way. I say when, not if, because this book will hasten the transformation." --Marva J. Dawn, Teaching Fellow in Spiritual Theology, Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia, and author of Unfettered Hope: A Call to Faithful Living in an Affluent Society and Powers, Weakness, and the Tabernacling of God . "Bob Ekblad has raised an ominously serious question what does the Bible say to the suffering down our street - across our town and city - and out in the fields where our supermarkets get our produce? The responses are both enlightening and challenging, and Ekblad has written a book to teach all of us about the Bible, faith and liberation, and the realities of our own social system." --Daniel L. Smith-Christopher, Professor of Old Testament, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, and author of A Biblical Theology of Exile . Bob Ekblad is Executive Director of Tierra Nueva and The People's Seminary in Burlington, Washington. For ten years, Tierra Nueva has worked with migrant, impoverished, and imprisoned populations in northwestern Washington state. Ekblad is a minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and is known internationally for his courses and workshops on reading the Bible.