Eugene Peterson died Monday. I wasn’t surprised at his death — Religion News Service reported last week that he had entered hospice care — but I was surprised by my reaction to it.
I found myself grieving, and it was hard to concentrate on my work as I mourned this loss of a wise teacher. Peterson, probably more than any other writer, has taught me how to read the Bible — and still teaches me again because I keep making it more complex than it needs to be at the exact same time that I reduce it to something overly simplistic and undemanding.