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Reading the Bible Badly exposes how American Christians misunderstand and misuse the Bible, reading Scripture through “lenses” that distort its true character. As Americans, we often read the Bible’s stories and instruction unmindful of their historical and cultural settings, disregarding the testimony of our spiritual ancestors, and finding mostly a mirror image of our own values and selves in Scripture. Some of us insist that the Bible must be the “inerrant word of God,” historically factual in every way and doctrinally infallible, and overlook so much of what makes Scripture beautiful and relevant. Others follow a lectionary that dices and splices Scripture into bite-size morsels for Sunday worship, divorces passages from their biblical settings, strikes verses deemed offensive, and undermines the literary artistry that is the lifeblood of Scripture’s profound revelation. Many of us read the Bible in fear, warping our witness to Jesus and tragically neglecting Scripture’s ever-persistent call to compassion, hospitality, and love. We come to the Bible looking for simple rules that affirm our sense of right and wrong, while missing the point of what Jesus taught about wisdom and true righteousness. Reading the Bible Badly challenges Christians to set aside their misaligned lenses, that they may encounter the Bible more fully and faithfully.
God has a bad reputation. Many think of God as wrathful and angry, smiting people for no apparent reason. But the story is more complicated than that. Without minimizing the sometimes harsh realities of the biblical record, David Lamb unpacks the complexity of the Old Testament and assembles an overall picture that gives coherence to our understanding of God in both Old and New Testaments.
We're told that the Bible is beautiful, uplifting and a joy to read - but, while we know this is how we're supposed to feel about it, in reality many of us find the very opposite. On opening the Bible, we are faced with a multitude of problems; from its form and historical content to its sheer size and often distasteful stories, we can be left feeling overwhelmed and disheartened. But the problem is not with the Bible - and it's not with us either. The problem is we've been misinformed. And so, we end up believing things about the Bible that the Bible never claims for itself. But the Bible won't politely sign up to the neat categories and terms we force on it. That's why it's badly behaved. We want to control the Bible and tame it so that we can ride it into battle; but the Bible bucks and rears and throws us off. We want to pin the Bible down so that it proves our theology; but the Bible evades capture and plays hide and seek. We want answers; but the Bible keeps firing questions. We want it to tell us what to do; but the Bible keeps telling us to think. We want to make the Bible dance to our tune: but the Bible has music of its own. The Bible is an invitation and a call. The breath of God lifts its pages, and they rise and fall with his breathing. In his honest and accessible style, Nick Page urges us to re-discover a fresh look at the Bible as the scriptural bedrock of the Christian faith, to learn how we can undo unhelpful ways of reading it and demystifying its purpose and scope. Nick tackles what the Bible is and what it isn't, how we can critically read this inspired text and how we approach the difficulties in its content. Alongside helpful analysis and practical advice - including kickstarting his one-man campaign to ban "Bible study" - Nick helps us re-discover how to rediscover the Bible as Holy Ground, as a place where we meet and encounter God.
Religion is an essential part of our humanity. We all follow some form of religion, in the original meaning of the word. But organized religion establishes definitions, boundaries and hierarchies which the founders would be amazed by. This is perhaps more true of Christianity than most other religions, due to the short life of Jesus, his sudden death, the lack of any contemporary records. His teaching about the kingdom of God is great; it could see us through our time on earth. But his followers watered it down and soon lost it altogether. It became a kingdom in heaven for the few, rather than one here and now for everyone. The Church, or Churches, that resulted became increasingly irrelevant, even a hindrance, to seeing it realized. Many will always find security and truth in the traditions that developed, and good for them. But for those who can't, for those who have given up on religion or never thought it worth considering, the original teachings are worth another look. If we could recover them and live by them, we could change ourselves and the world for the better. We could bring God up to date.
Randolph Richards and Brandon O'Brien explore the complicated persona and teachings of the apostle Paul. Unpacking his personal history and cultural context, they show how Paul both offended Roman perspectives and scandalized Jewish sensibilities, revealing a vision of Christian faith that was deeply disturbing to others in his day and remains so in ours.
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The Jesus everybody likes, says Mark Strauss, is not the Jesus found in the Gospels. He preached about hell far more than the apostle Paul. He told his followers to hate their families. Not one of his twelve apostles was a woman. When we unpack these puzzling paradoxes and more, we gain greater insight into Jesus' countercultural message and mission.
Many Christians view the Bible as an instruction manual. While the Bible does provide instruction, it can also captivate, comfort, delight, shock, and inspire. In short, it elicits emotion--just like poetry. By learning to read and love poetry, says literature professor Matthew Mullins, readers can increase their understanding of the biblical text and learn to love God's Word more. Each chapter includes exercises and questions designed to help readers put the book's principles and practices into action.
We know Jesus the Savior, but have we met Jesus, Prince of Peace? When did we accept vengeance as an acceptable part of the Christian life? How did violence and power seep into our understanding of faith and grace? For those troubled by this trend toward the sword, perhaps there is a better way. What if the message of Jesus differs radically differs from the drumbeats of war we hear all around us? Using his own journey from war crier to peacemaker and his in-depth study of peace in the scriptures, author and pastor Brian Zahnd reintroduces us to the gospel of Peace.
Annotation Ethical Virtuosity challenges you to identify, articulate, defend and live the personal values and ethical principles that define who you are and how you lead others. Renowned author Dr. Louie Larimer presents seven simple steps that lead to ethical virtuosity. You'll discover the meaning of ethics, integrity, character, personal accountability and moral courage and how they are relevant within today's business environment.