≡ Libro Free The Bible Tells Me So Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It Peter Enns 9780062272027 Books

The Bible Tells Me So Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It Peter Enns 9780062272027 Books

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The Bible Tells Me So Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It Peter Enns 9780062272027 Books

There are quite a few reviews of this book that I could simply copy and paste and say “ditto”--readers who have so intelligently reflected on how Enns has challenged and encouraged them, even readers who have expressed some frustrations, topics that they felt weren’t discussed well. Sometimes knowing more about the reviewer gives me a clue about whether I would like to read a book, so maybe that will be helpful to some. I’m a Christian raised in the evangelical tradition, attended Bible college (solely to study the Bible), and with my husband raised two children and homeschooled them from birth to graduation, I’ve attended dozens of Bible studies and read books by many lovers of God; I’ve experienced the supernatural presence of God (once in my life).

Yet, I have wrestled with scripture for the better part of the past thirty years. The questions and niggling doubts about who God/Jesus/Holy Spirit are, what is Truth, why am I not full of joy, why am I not consumed with sharing this love that I’m supposed to have encountered, why does He not help me to trust or love Him when it’s my heart’s desire, why am I sad and unsure? Amidst all of these subjective questions, I felt that God was bigger and better than what I believed. This book has allowed me to confront those questions. It’s the beginning of a conversation, and conversations can be really helpful and healthy. I’m so grateful that Enns has dug deep and wrestled with his faith (and come out on the other side loving God/Jesus/Holy Spirit and Bible) and has been willing to pass along the nuggets.


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The Bible Tells Me So Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It Peter Enns 9780062272027 Books Reviews

This was a pretty enlightening book. For all those who have read the Bible all the way through a few times, there are some contradictions and mixed messages, if you try to read it, as the author says, as a literal instruction manual. Do A thru Z, read A thru Z, and you will know how to be a better Christian (or Jew, since much of Enns' approach to reading the Bible mirrors how Jews read and examine their scriptures, what we call the Old Testament). That uncomfortable feeling reading of the bloodshed and descriptions of a sometimes vengeful God, compared to the messages of love and peace from Jesus in the New Testament books. Much discussion is around when and how these books were written, followed by how Jesus Himself talked of them.

Now, a warning if you're new to your faith, I don't recommend this book right away. One note the author says early on, and I would agree with, is that many biblical scholars suffer a crises of faith the deeper they dig into the Bible and its history. Without a grounded belief in God and examples of His work in your own life, you could walk away from reading this book all bummed out and finding yourself in your own crises, unless you read it carefully. He doesn't use the contradictions and discussion of the nature of how the books were written as a way to say none of it is true. On the contrary, Enns shows how to read it to avoid the pitfalls of taking some things too literally, rather than as a book written by people in different stages of a life of faith, from a solid connection with their God to "dark nights of the soul". This is what makes the book so powerful over the centuries, since no matter where you might be in your own walk, it speaks to you where you are.

I found myself agreeing with a good portion of what he is saying, but not everything. Overall, however, how he suggests we look at the scriptures is how I have done. I agree that trying to take everything so literally that you are never able to truly defend God's Word because when taking every word literally you can't, because of the differences in presentation throughout. The world was different in 2,000 BC versus 0, versus 2000 AD (or BCE, CE for you modern purists).

Overall, I found it quite enlightening, but reaching no conclusions I haven't already come to for the most part. However, if you find yourself at a spiritual crossroads when it comes to trying to reconcile the Bible from cover to cover, you might find this approach helpful. Just read it prayerfully, as you should the Bible itself. )
This book is useful for a number of different kinds of people. About the only group it won't be useful for is people who are looking for a book to confirm your current systematic theology of Scripture. The odds are good that any particular reader will not agree completely with every single thing in this book.

What this book IS good for is theological honesty and glaring, inescapable reminders that what it means to love the Bible, take the Bible seriously, and take it as authoritative has more to do with dealing honestly with the actual Bible we have than committing to a theological edifice around what the Bible is supposed to be.

Enns makes his points from the Scriptures, themselves. It isn't an argument about how the Bible is unreliable. It isn't a list of critiques that boil down to, "I don't think God would be like this, so the Bible is probably wrong." It's not an attempt to make the Bible a book of Aesop's fables or extended allegories. People who appreciate exegesis will appreciate that Enns uses Scripture itself as his primary reference for the points and observations he makes.

Enns uses the Bible to work through the question, "Are popular, modern, evangelical conceptions of what Scripture is supposed to be really honest about the Scriptures we have been given?" Rather than a challenge to biblical authority, it is actually a striking affirmation of that authority by encouraging us to let the Bible show -us- what it's about, what it's trying to say, what the "issues" are, and how it wants to communicate with us. This is a book about accepting the Bible on its own terms rather than trying to defend a particular extant concept of what the Bible is supposed to be. While this may be somewhat unsettling to certain entrenched views, dealing with the actual Bible we've got and how we got it is far more honoring to the Scriptures than pretending they are a holy textbook that fell out of the sky.

Enns begins with the conquest of Canaan as a primary example of a hot button issue and proceeds to take us through the Old Testament story of Israel, how it was formed, and what concerns it is trying to address. This leads us into the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament. Each point deals not only with traditional "difficulties" in the biblical text, but also takes a serious look at how Jewish tradition, Jesus, and the apostles used their Scriptures and what that looked like in their world.

The end result, for me, was one of relief. As a theologically conservative evangelical, myself, I have often felt I have had to "uphold the integrity of Scripture" with arguments that wouldn't satisfy a child. This book helped me realize in concrete ways that the Bible does not require me to do that, but that I am taking the Bible more seriously when I take it as it was given.

Will everyone find every argument compelling? Probably not, but that's not the goal. The goal is to get us to be honest about whether or not we are actually requiring the Bible to be something it never pretended to be.

This book should be very useful for anyone who has or is wrestling with their commitments to Christianity as well as their intellectual honesty. I found a lot of rest in honoring the Bible by just allowing it to be what it is in all its messy, organic, historically-conditioned, difficult glory and not trying to make it into something else.
There are quite a few reviews of this book that I could simply copy and paste and say “ditto”--readers who have so intelligently reflected on how Enns has challenged and encouraged them, even readers who have expressed some frustrations, topics that they felt weren’t discussed well. Sometimes knowing more about the reviewer gives me a clue about whether I would like to read a book, so maybe that will be helpful to some. I’m a Christian raised in the evangelical tradition, attended Bible college (solely to study the Bible), and with my husband raised two children and homeschooled them from birth to graduation, I’ve attended dozens of Bible studies and read books by many lovers of God; I’ve experienced the supernatural presence of God (once in my life).

Yet, I have wrestled with scripture for the better part of the past thirty years. The questions and niggling doubts about who God/Jesus/Holy Spirit are, what is Truth, why am I not full of joy, why am I not consumed with sharing this love that I’m supposed to have encountered, why does He not help me to trust or love Him when it’s my heart’s desire, why am I sad and unsure? Amidst all of these subjective questions, I felt that God was bigger and better than what I believed. This book has allowed me to confront those questions. It’s the beginning of a conversation, and conversations can be really helpful and healthy. I’m so grateful that Enns has dug deep and wrestled with his faith (and come out on the other side loving God/Jesus/Holy Spirit and Bible) and has been willing to pass along the nuggets.