Background to the Bible meets the Christian's need for a balanced, non-technical, popularly written guide to an informed reading of Scripture. Richard T.A. Murphy, the noted Dominican Scripture scholar, takes an approach to the Bible Which avoids the extremes of both fundamentalism and modernism. He introduces the reader to the culture of biblical times, examines the processes that brought the Bible into being, evaluates the approaches and accomplishments of Scripture scholars, and studies the relationship between the Bible and reason, science, and history.