The more seriously one takes the Bible, the more seriously one should be willing to wrestle with its internal complexities.<\/p>\n
The Bible is a remarkable collection of countless people\u2019s perspectives from a broad range of locations over the course of centuries. In this amazing assortment of texts, we see all of these different people \u2014 individuals and groups \u2014 reflecting on who they are, who their God is and how they see the relationships between themselves, their God, their land, their neighbors and more.<\/p>\n
This is not a matter of liberal vs. conservative interpretation of the Bible. Anyone who wants to read the Bible with care \u2014 Jewish, Protestant or Catholic, liberal or conservative, academically inclined or less so \u2014 should honestly engage the variety of voices the Bible contains. Liberal and conservative readers can interpret texts wisely, reasonably, and still differently from one another, but one approach that is not intellectually supportable is the attempt to harmonize the Bible\u2019s many voices all into one.<\/p>\n