better ways to read the bible - a review

 I think I might have been overconfident about getting two reviews done quickly! It's been a busy couple of weeks, with some heavy stuff to deal with, but I did get Zach's book read!

What a delight this book is! Really worth five stars - it's accessible, written with clarity and depth, there's a warmth about it that is engaging and encouraging. 

Zach reminds us (because many of those who claim to be Christian don't believe it) that we all read the Bible through interpretative lenses. I grew up in a Church tradition which thought that it read the Bible in the 'right' way - that the interpretation given by the pastor was the only way we should look at Scripture. As soon as I started studying Theology I realized how many different ways the Bible is read - and that more often than not, more is read INTO the Bible than actually comes from Scripture. 

'better ways...' looks at three of the lenses which are used in many Churches and which cause hurt and harm because of the way they oppress and exclude people, because they shore up power and influence for a particular set of people, and because they don't encourage critical thought about our Scriptures. He then offers three other lenses which flip the way in which Scripture can be used to liberate, to uplift, and to encourage fullness of life. The style is pastoral rather than scholarly, and as a theologian myself I don't agree with every statement (for instance, one doesn't have to try and explain Paul's statements about women in 1 Timothy in such a way as to present an apologetic that makes them fit with Paul's overwhelmingly positive attitude about ministry if, as the vast majority of Biblical Scholars believe, the Pastoral letters weren't written by Paul but are pseudepigraphical.) but not agreeing with every single sentence doesn't lessen the quality and value of this heartfelt, well thought-out, compassionate book. 

For those who have 'deconstructed' (a term that wasn't even known in the heyday of this blog!), for those who are asking questions of the nature of the Bible, for those who are in the midst of deconstructing their way of being faithful this book is a Godsend! Those who are conservative and who are wanting to retain their worldview, particularly if their own power and/or identity is wrapped up in a particular way of seeing will struggle with this, or will outright loathe it - but for the curious, the compassionate, and those wanting to follow the way of Christ over the way of their Church, this is a book well worth reading! It will encourage and enliven your journey if you let it.