The Global Bible Commentary will be similar in size to the Women's Bible Commentary (401pages, 2 columns).  Thus, the commentary on each biblical book will be quite short.  This is possible because of the format proposed below.

Keeping in mind that the main audience are to be clergy (pastors, priests using this commentary in preparation for preaching or Bible study classes) as well as seminary and undergraduate students, and lay members of the church, the commentary on each book of the Bible must be neither methodologically overwhelming nor too simplistic.  This is the balance that commentators who practice one kind or another of contextual biblical studies already maintain. For those of us less accustomed to this approach, it is simply a matter of keeping in mind our primary audience: clergy.  How to shape each of our commentaries becomes clear, when we take as a model the way in which those we consider to be faithful preachers use Scripture when preparing a sermon (or a biblical study) for a congregation or a group regarding the teaching of this biblical book about "the relationship between the church/people of God and the world" (the uniting focus of this Global Bible Commentary).  This is practicing "scriptural criticism."

In order to insure that her/his sermon will address her/his congregation's needs, before formulating what is "the teaching of this text for us today,"  the preacher must proceed to three kinds of analysis, as each commentary will also do:

1)   The preacher must become aware of the problems the members of this congregation face in their particular life-context, she/he must identify the contextual problems/issues the text might address. Similarly, each commentator must clarify the problems that the text might address in her/his life-context regarding the interactions of the church/people of God with the world in its socio-economic and political concreteness;
 
2) The preacher must elucidate the religious and theological issues raised for the members of the congregation in this life-context, to assess which of their hermeneutical and theological concepts are affirmed or challenged by the text. Similarly, each commentator must clarify the religious and theological issues raised for the church/people of God regarding its interaction with the world's culture, sub-cultures, and ideologies, and with other religious communities present in that society.  (The two preceding points refer to two dimensions of the process of "conscientization" a process viewed here as taking place in dialogue with the biblical text.)
 
3) The preacher must then proceed to a close analysis of the text, using appropriate critical tools to study the passages or aspects of the text that are particularly relevant for addressing these contextual problems and hermeneutical/theological issues. Similarly, each commentator must analyze with appropriate critical tools the biblical book, identifying and commenting upon the passages and aspects of the text that address the contextual problems and the hermeneutical/theological issues regarding the relationship church/people of God with the world in the commentator's specific context.
 
Thus, keeping in mind that the audience of the Global Bible Commentary will be pastors and priests as well as seminary and undergraduate students, and lay members of the church, the structure of the commentary on each biblical book will reflect both a) how the biblical text is interpreted from the perspective the commentator's life-context and of the religious views of people in that context and b) how the commentator's life-context and the religious views of people in that context are interpreted from the perspective of the text.   (This is following the approach of "scriptural criticism" described here.)