The Collegeville Bible Commentary: Based on the New American Bible: New Testament is an excellent resource tool for anyone who wants a deeper look into the community situation of that particular time period in which the book was written. If you are studying the New Testament, this book is a must! You'll be happy that you own it.

This Commentary, published by the Liturgical Press in Collegville, MN, is a compendium of individual monographs on one or more of the twenty-seven books of the NT. Each monograph is by a leading scholar on the book or books of the NT reviewed. The text of the revised translation of the New American Bible(NAB) is integrated into the text, making use very convenient for home study or in a Bible study group. The NAB is a translation from the original languages predominantly by Catholic scholars but with assistance from Protestant scholars. The Revised Edition (1987)greatly improved the NT translation and the great Bible scholar Raymond Brown called it "a serious candidate for study purposes." The Collegeville Bible Commentaryis an excellent choice for the informed lay reader and I use it more than any other NT resource in my library. Not pedantic but informed by scholarship, it is penned in very readable prose despite the multiple authors. Each chapter begins with a short essay on authorship, date written, structure, history and importance. A brief outline of the major points to be observed is suggested. Their are maps and pictures of the Holy Land at key points facilitating understanding. It is of course written from a Catholic perspective but there has been much cooperation by Catholic and Protestant Bible scholars for many years now and this is reflected in the text. Even Mathew 16-18 (thou art Peter and upon this Rock I build my Church), a bedrock passage in Catholic apologetics, is handled in a way acceptable to all readers; the Commentary simply says "verse 18 promises that Peter is the rock on which the Christian community will be build after Jesus' death and resurrection." This compilation is a particularly reasonable way to acquire excellent study resources; the volume is not unduly bulky (440 pages) and yet many times less expensive than buying the monographs separately. Based on my experience, I can give an unqualified recommendation.

For such a small book, the author offers tremendous history and application of feminist liturgy to institutional settings. If you're looking for ritual or liturgy for social justice and/or affirmation of women in liturgical settings, this is a wonderful resource. I found it marvelously affirming of my liturgical and spiritual journey.

I used the Collegeville commentary as a part of a New Testament Theology class at Kings College. The commentary is written in terms that a modern mind can relate to, but it retains its Catholic committment to Truth. The format is good too, the commentary is on the bottom half of the page while the scripture is on the top half. This makes it easy to access both, but still gives you a format that supports concentrating on one part at a time.

"The Collegeville Bible Commentary" is a must for those individuals who want to understand the scriptures that are being read and heard. With the many scripture studies now formulated in the many churches of today, the commentary unifies that understanding. One of the major problems in the early years of reading scripture was the confusion of each individuals intrepretation. The Bible Commentary, again, adds a tool to help bring unity and growth of those who thirst and are seeking God's Word for them.

This well written introduction to the Bible is designed for those who are beginning to study the Bible. The book is a condensed version of the Collegeville Bible Commentary which was written by 32 respected Biblical scholars. Each book of the Bible is discussed in an introduction as well as more detailed commentary. The handbook also contains color illustrations, photos, timelines, and maps. Quotes are from the New American Bible. I recommend this book for those who are beginning to study the Bible. The Liturgical Press is also the publisher of a number of more comprehensive books ranging from studies of the entire Bible, the New and Old Testament, and individual books of the Bible; these volumes are recommended for those who want a more comprehensive resource.

If you're a former MSU student or a resident of East Lansing it is great fun walking down memory lane with this book.

The Collegeville Commentary series is a Catholic set of commentaries for the books of the Bible. Most of the commentaries are individual (ie: one commentary for one book of the Bible), and the commentary on Matthew is one of those. When I say that it is a Catholic commentary, I mean that it is written by someone of the Catholic faith, and as such all interpretation will be done from the Catholic standpoint. The commentary is a paperback book of over 100 pages. The top portion of each page contains the actual Biblical verses, while the lower portion of each page contains the commentary. The two are easily delineated, and the format is not confusing. Another nice feature to the individual books (like this one) as compared to the compendium (you can buy the Old or New Testament commentaries as single books) is that these contain pictures of sites important to Jesus' ministry, and where appropriate maps of the areas as well. Also, the compendiums do not have the Biblical verses but only contain the commentaries (presumably to save space). The cost of these books is relatively cheap and if you only need a commentary on a book or two of the Bible these are much cheaper to buy than large bulky commentaries. If you want the whole set though, I suggest you buy the compilations of the OT and NT, which though they lack the pictures found in the single books are much reduced in cost. Overall, these are very good books to learn from and read if you are a Catholic. It is one of the very few "Catholic Commentaries" that you can find that covers the entire Bible.

This is a great commentary. It interpreted the bible in a way that everyone could understand. It cleared up many gray areas for me. Background information is given for almost every vers. The best part of all is that it The Collegeville Bible Commentary helped me get an A- on a Religion paper.

Like many other atlases of biblical times, this atlas is filled with colorful images, drawings and maps. In particular, this book is more than just an atlas, but a visual guide to the location and lifestyle of the biblical lands. Many of the visual insets are well reporduced and nicely described. The text is easy to read, informed by recent scholarly opinion, and is approached from a secular standpoint.

The main complaint with the book is its layout of images of cities and area maps across two pages. While the larger size of the maps and images of cities and temples is appreciated, the hardcover binding of the book really distorts the images. For example, about 2 inches of the map on page 59 of the Assyrian Empire is pushed leftwards on to page 58, and to the right of the map is a two inch column depicting a tribute obelisk. While removing this small image and description and placing it on page 58, leaving 59 free to contain the entire map, might make the book's page layout less exciting, at least the map would not be distorted by the binding crease.

Since the main focus of an atlas of this sort should be its images (and not necessarily the text, although that is important), it really detracts from the overall appreciation of the book to experience such distortion of maps and images page after page. Almost every 3D topographical map is distorted in this fashion.

The publisher would have better served the editors if care would have been taken to create maps and images which could either have been contained on one page, or designed with a hardcover binding as interference, reducing the image distortion.

Otherwise the book is beautifully done, containing clear appropriate images and easy, intelligent text, without noticable religious bias. If your looking just for images and maps, perhaps you might look elsewhere. But if you want interesting engaging text with nicely done (though poorly implemented) maps and drawings, as well as a wealth of descriptive artifacts from the lands of the bible, then I would recommend this book.

The book reads like a summary of something else, and I would guess that the something else is her book, Liturgy, the Language of Faith. I am a parish priest and looking for insight into interpreting liturgy. From the book I learned that the historical-critical method was adopted heavily by the liturgical reform to critique early church sources, redactions, rites, etc... and that now literary criticism is having its turn. But the complexities of the individual fields are still lost on me--I still would have a hard time explaining what reader-response criticism is, let alone apply it. So I am encouraged by the many footnotes to pursue additional reading. In sum, the book lays out the state of the question, but assumes a good working knowledge of the field.