When we read devotionally we want to bring the text to life, to imaginatively engage it, to vicariously experience the situations, story, and message contained in the letters on the page. The second level of reading, by contrast, is less imaginative and more investigative. At the second level we want to ask questions about the literary features of the text,70 about the overall argument of the letter to the Romans, the narrative structure and flow of the Gospel of John, and wider questions such as how this or that book fits into the entire biblical canon.
