{"id":857,"date":"2015-01-18T20:03:17","date_gmt":"2015-01-19T02:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidbokovoy\/?p=857"},"modified":"2015-01-18T22:11:27","modified_gmt":"2015-01-19T04:11:27","slug":"peter-enns-reading-the-bible-critically-as-a-spiritual-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidbokovoy\/2015\/01\/peter-enns-reading-the-bible-critically-as-a-spiritual-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"Peter Enns: Reading the Bible Critically as a Spiritual Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to make a confession. No offense to Peter Enns, but his book, The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It<\/em> is not the type of book I would typically read. It\u2019s not that I don\u2019t appreciate this type of book. I do (I\u2019ve even been working on a somewhat similar project<\/a> for an LDS audience). It\u2019s just that I do a lot of teaching combined with a lot of commuting. This means that my reading time is sacred and when I get it, instead of a religious read, I want an academic book that doesn\u2019t explore questions of faith but simply focuses on the Bible from a historical-critical perspective.<\/p>\n

But I really enjoyed listening to Dr. Enns\u2019s podcast<\/a> with Blair Hodges while I was driving in between some classes (part of the Maxwell Institute\u2019s impressive series that includes an interview with Dr. Marc Brettler<\/a>). In fact, I enjoyed it so much, I went ahead and picked up a Kindle version of Dr. Enns\u2019 book. And I\u2019m soooo<\/em> glad that I did! I simply cannot recommend this book highly enough for religious readers of the Bible interested in adopting a critical perspective as part of their spiritual reading. <\/p>\n

On a personal note, in many ways, Dr. Enn\u2019s journey parallels my own. In fact, I\u2019m going to admit that I was sitting in Church the other day reading his book (probably something I shouldn\u2019t do, but\u2026), when with a huge grin on my face, I started highlighting some of Dr. Enn\u2019s words and excitedly handed the Ipad over to my wife to read. She agreed. It was almost perfectly parallel to things that I\u2019ve said and experienced (not that that makes it a good book, but it\u2019s always nice to find someone you relate to in terms of thoughts and life experiences). I just wanted to say how personally grateful I feel to Dr. Enns for having written this beautiful book that shares the story of his adoption of a critical perspective. <\/p>\n

I thought I would provide readers with just one example of what awaits them in this wonderful read. Toward the beginning of the book, Dr. Enns discusses all of the slaughtering God either does himself or commissions in the Bible. And there\u2019s a lot of it. The Biblical God is a god of violence. After discussing this trend, Dr. Enns writes:<\/p>\n

\u201cMany readers of the Bible feel the strong impulse to get God off the hook for acting this way, which means finding a good way to end the following sentence: \u2018It\u2019s a perfectly fine and right thing for God to order the extermination of Canaanites and take their land because. . . \u2018<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe need to end that sentence well comes from an owner\u2019s manual mentality about the Bible: What the Bible tells use about God simply has to be the way God is. God said it; I must believe it; and so it must be true. That mentality has produced all sorts of stressful solutions, not to mention a few atrocities\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cIs this really the kind of God we believe in, the God who created the world and loves it? Is this the God that greets us when we rise in the morning and think of when the day closes? Is this the kind of God we tell others about, or do we opt for the nicer version, since we know the other version won\u2019t cut it? Westboro Baptist Church might get giddy over a God like this, but they\u2019re wacky. I wouldn\u2019t trust them to save a drowning kitten.\u201d <\/p>\n

Well, that\u2019s fun. But don\u2019t worry. Despite his critical approach, Dr. Enns doesn\u2019t just abandon religious readers with a worthless Bible devoid of spiritual merit. Instead, he presents reading the Bible critically as a religious journey that allows believers to find a deeper faith in God than they would by approaching the Bible as an \u201cowner\u2019s manual\u201d concerning divinity.<\/p>\n

But you\u2019re going to have to read the book to find out how he does it. Trust me. You won\u2019t be disappointed. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m going to make a confession. No offense to Peter Enns, but his book, The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It is not the type of book I would typically read. It\u2019s not that I don\u2019t appreciate this type of book. I do (I\u2019ve even been working […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":316,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[195,19],"tags":[99,112],"class_list":["post-857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-historical-criticism","tag-peter-enns","tag-the-bible-tells-me-so"],"yoast_head":"\nPeter Enns: Reading the Bible Critically as a Spiritual Journey<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I'm going to make a confession. 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