Book Review - The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible

The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible by Scot McKnight
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

How each of us chooses (consciously or not, but we all do choose) to read the Bible has a direct impact on how we end up applying its text.

One of the first things Dr. Scot McKnight brings up is that "we all pick and choose" when it comes to the Bible and its application to our lives. The important thing is to become aware of it and learn how we pick and choose. By becoming cognizant of our way of reading and our biases, we can become better interpreters of the text and have a rationale for why we interpret the way we do.

Dr. McKnight details how he believes the Bible ought to be read. His is a balance between all-tradition and all-individualism. Each person needs to read the Bible and think through applications as individuals, but it must be done as part of both historical and contemporary communities of faith. He describes this as "reading with tradition" as opposed to "reading through tradition". The difference is that with tradition values what tradition brings, but leaves open the room to question it and revise it, if necessary. Reading through tradition places it on a pedestal; it is a fixed norm that cannot be changed. While Protestants, and particularly Evangelicals, might protest that they don't put tradition on a pedestal, Dr. McKnight argues that is in fact what has happened in many churches.

He suggests that we would do ourselves great service to learn to read the Bible as a Story, where there was the original intent for humankind, how things went wrong, God's efforts to bring restoration that culminates in Jesus, and ends with a final restoration of all things. This is in contrast to the many ways of contemporary Bible reading that looks to the Bible for isolated principles, maxims, promises, and applications. Dr. McKnight writes that contemporary Christians have often turned the Bible itself into an object of worship (idolatry) by conferring upon it authority and infallibility that belongs only to God himself.

The final section of the book is a case study of what Dr. McKnight discusses in the first two sections. The case study is on the role of women in ministry. He looks at the Old and New Testaments to see What Did Women Do? as found in the biblical text. He places this inside of the greater Story framework of the Bible and God's redemptive plan. He uses this as the framework to interpret some of the "hammer" passages that are frequently cited by traditionalists to bar women from full inclusion in ministry. It is not a full and exhaustive discussion of women in ministry, but provides key points and highlights.

He writes the following, which I see as summarizing his position:

Now for the troubling irony: seeking to control or limit the applicability of the WDWD passages by appealing to the silencing passages illustrates the fall, not the new creation. When men seek to control women by silencing them permanently in the church, we stand face-to-face with a contradiction of the very thing the new creation is designed to accomplish: to undo the fall. What we see in this desire to silence women is the desire to rule over women, a desire that pertains to the fall, not to the new creation. What the Spirit does when the Spirit is present is to release and liberate humans from their fallen condition so that God’s will can be completely done. The Spirit creates mutuality. Always.

I see Dr. McKnight as a progressive conservative: he is progressive in his approach to interpreting the Bible, but he is very much conservative in accepting Bible as inspired by God and is critical in apprehending God's revelation to humankind.

While not all may accept Dr. McKnight's position on women in ministry, he cannot be accused of not having a sound rationale for it. And it would do well for all who claim that the Bible has some degree of authority over them, to read this book and have a clearer idea of how they have chosen to read and interpret the Bible. To that effect there are a couple of quizzes found in the Appendices to help guide the reader.

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