On the Folly of Undifferentiated Biblical Literalism (with Don Thorsen and Keith Reeves)

Currently I am reading Don Thorsen and Keith Reeves’ new book What Christians Believe about the Bible (Baker, 2012). So far, it has been a very good guide to biblical hermeneutics (so far at page 51), but I wanted to note one hilariously apt illustration used in the book. Thorsen and Reeves bemoan the abuse of Biblical genres, especially when texts are taken literally when they are metaphorical (as in apocalyptic literature). They offer an example from a magazine called The Wittenburg Door where the cover picture is a depiction of the woman of the Song of Solomon if all the attributes in the book were taken literally. This is such a good example that makes an important point!!