Peter Enns

I just read this, but I feel like I need to read it again for everything to sink in. As accessible as the book is, and it's often humorous as well, the ideas are challenging and will require further thought.
The author makes good points about keeping in mind time and culture when reading the Bible and not just seeing it as a rule book and trying to iron out/explain away inconsistencies.

The Bible—from back to front—is the story of God told from the limited point of view of real people living at a certain place and time.

He later says

These ancient writers had an adequate understanding of God for them in their time, but not for all time—and if we take that to heart, we will actually be in a better position to respect these ancient voices and see what they have to say rather than whitewashing the details and making up "explanations" to ease our stress.

Covering a variety of problem passages, he always comes back to his main point that "an owner's manual approach to the Bible doesn't work."
I picked this up because I'm re-reading the bible for the first time in years (I have one of those read-it-in-a-year versions—I'm increasingly skeptical of this approach, but I'll probably stick with it until I'm through), and there is quite a lot that bothers me, especially in the Old Testament. As a result, this book is my second foray this year into biblical scholarship, and I thought it made a lot of sense. That doesn't mean I'm on board with everything he says, but I will probably pick up more of his work, and that of others, as I look for answers.… (más)

Started out good and then it just fails. The problem is Biblical literacy is abysmal in this country. Too many people are told what to read and how to read it and how to interpret it. Too many abdicate their brains for the pastor's word. And they take that word as law.

Especially when Enns got to the New Testament, I felt he was more interested in scrapping the Bible rather than understanding it as a whole. It became everything is just a fairytale rather than hard truths. And you wonder why there are over 40000 Protestant denominations in the US alone. Everyone can interpret and everyone thinks their interpretation is the correct one. The Christian Church in the US is failing and authors like Enns are helping it along.… (más)