Informative, challenging and lots of humour

It's great to learn some new critical facts about the Bible while still feeling that the author respects the scriptures and is trying to help others have a deeper more honest relationship with them.

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Biblical seeker beware

This book is not a good book to read if you are looking to understand God and the Bible better. Please do not read this if you Love God. Love Thy Body by Nancy R. Pearcey is a great book for a better world view understanding of God and the Bible. God bless.

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Oddly written

interesting read, intriguing content, somewhat distractingly informal writing style. Lot's of cheesy "Dad humour".

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Just a human book

I am an Anglican priest, so I am dealing with the Bible a lot. I have studied it formally as a student in a secular university and in an Anglican seminary.

Enns is funny, and very down to earth. I found him to be quite cynical, as well. His intended audience seems to be former fundamentalists who are no longer willing to view the Bible as a having descended from the clouds in the King James Version. He is reacting against a view of the Bible that presents it as a monolithic rule book, or as presenting a unified image of God.

He is basically using the methods of Historical Criticism that have been used throughout the 19th and 20th century. This method studies the Bible as an historical human document. It is interested in the original human authors, and the cultures that shaped them. But, it ignores any sense of divine influence.

Throughout the book, Enns points out ways that the people have changed their understanding of God. He suggests that just as writers of the Old and New Testaments have changed their views of God, so we should feel free to change our view of God as well, guided by wisdom. We are informed by the writers of the Bible, but we are not needing to imitate what they have done, nor should we. We are invited to modify our view of God for our culture just as Bible authors modified their view of God for their culture.

NT Wright has written something similar on the authority of Scripture that uses the idea of a lost 5 act play by Shakespeare, but the last act is missing. Wright suggests the Bible functions similarly. We have to improvise the 5th act in a way that it is still in continuity with the other four acts without simply repeating them. I think Wright’s image is more helpful to Christians than what Enns is presenting here.

I think what Enns is missing is a discussion about hermeneutics. How do we recognize the ‘wisdom’ that is supposed to guide us to our understanding of God? I know we can't do this with certainty, but what are the signposts? Wisdom is what is supposed to guide us into an accurate view of God for our culture, but how do we know when we are on the right track? As we seek to modify our view of God for our culture how do we know if we aren’t just being merely fashionable?

For example, to use an overused image, German theologians in the early 20th century were modifying their view of God such that it paved the way for churches to accept, rather than criticize, the Nazi government. What allowed Bonhoeffer to view God in a way that made him and the Confessing Church critical of the Nazi movement? Would Enns’ view of the Bible and of continuously adapting our image of God in relation to our culture lead to a Bonhoeffer who can be critical of a mass movement in his culture? Would Enns’ understanding of Scripture produce a Francis of Assisi, who tried to live out the Sermon on the Mount, embracing poverty, in the face of an ostentatious church?

I’m not denying that our view of God modifies over time. Enns knows this is a sticky situation for each generation, More discussion how on we might be guided through this would have been helpful. In reading the book I had the sense that a changing view of God was the norm, and that was good, But how do we avoid adopting bad changes in our view of God?

I think the major piece that is missing from this book is God’s side of our understanding of Scripture. How is it that God uses Scripture? Does God use it? Why not ditch it and seek after wisdom without the baggage of the Bible? As Christians, we believe that God speaks to the Church through the words of the Bible? How? I would like him to engage with some of the theologians doing work regarding figural reading.

Enns sees the authors of Scripture as reaching out to understand God in ways appropriate to their culture. But the same could be said of many of the ancient myths through human history. Is Christian Scripture no more valuable for understanding God than the Epic of Gilgamesh? Or the Greek myths? This isn’t to say there isn’t something to learn in these writings, but do we really want to hold these on the same level?

I would like to see Enns write a book for an atheistic audience about why the Bible is a valuable thing to study.

I think the book is a good read, but I think there are significant oversights. I’m not completely sure I see how his method is “good news”. Perhaps it is good news for those deconstructing their faith and trying to escape a more fundamentalist view of Scripture. But I think someone could easily feel that the Bible is not worth dealing with after reading this book. It could easily be used by an atheist to show why the Bible should be left behind with other myths of history.

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Thank You

Such beautiful and wise insights to understanding the simplicity and complexity that is The Holy Bible. Thank you so much, Peter Enns for writing this book.

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Excellent

Intelligent and heartfelt intro to a different way to approach the Bible (for western Christians anyway - I can only speak to that). I found it to give me more freedom and curiosity.

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Not really a Christian book

Not really a Christian book and the author is not a born again Christian. The book is very deceiving. I would not recommend.

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