I read James Sanders’ Torah and Canon during my first year of PhD work, but I don’t think I really appreciated it in the manner which it deserves. Recently, I reread it in my research on canon, and I’m very glad I did. Sanders demonstrates various ways in which Israel’s scriptures functioned in the lives of its historic communities in a variety of periods. Put differently, we explore in this book the ways in which scripture formed a people, sustained them in exile, called them to repentance, and gave them a story by which to live. Sanders’ control of the material is impressive, to say the least. There are, by the way, many ways in which Sanders’ arguments apply to the life of the church today.