For Catholics involved in catechetical or other pastoral work or for Catholics who just seek nourishment from the Scriptures, the profusion of books on the Bible and the historical Jesus (whether as Jewish peasant, "marginal Jew," or social revolutionary) is an experience in vertigo. Dr. Williamson fortunately has distilled the principles of Catholic biblical interpretation in his study of the Pontifical Biblical Commission's 1993 document "The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church." The authoritative and approving preface is specialists. And that in the end is, in my opinion, the most significant point made Catholics.