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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Review – The Naked Anabaptist: The Bare Essentials of a Radical Faith

The Naked Anabaptist: The Bare Essentials of a Radical Faith by Stuart Murray
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've been seeing increasing mentions of Anabaptists recently. Like many American Christians, probably the only associative reference I have of Anabaptists are groups such as the Amish, Mennonites, and Quakers. This book was a good introduction on some of the history, the core values, and how these values are practiced in contemporary society.

The title The Naked Anabaptist comes from the purpose of the book: to strip away group and cultural accouterments that are associated with forms of Anabaptism and get at the core values that are shared across most, if not all, who belong to it. There are seven such values, and among them are what is likely familiar to many Christians: peacemaking, community, and social justice. There are others that are less familiar, but no less important such as methods of reading and interpreting scripture; engaging the public sphere; and ministry according to gifts, not culturally and culturally-informed theologically based roles (aka, gender roles, women's roles in the church, etc.).

One of the key principles used throughout the book is the distinction between Christianity and Christendom. The first is faithful to Jesus and gospel; the second is a creation of (literally) men. The former is the first two to three centuries of the Church; the latter is what happened when Church and Rome came together and continues to be a priority of most Christian groups and denominations today. Even among those who claim separation of church and state, many look with nostalgia on the time when the public sphere had the imprimatur of the Church and vice versa, and the hierarchical structure taken from secular power reign in most formal church organizations. Anabaptists are very much for Christianity, but are strongly against Christendom.

The book ends with a chapter on some of the criticisms and critiques that Anabaptism has received, some of its shortcomings and dangers.

The book is evangelistic, but not proselytizing: i.e., it seeks to spread the good news that is found in Anabaptist values. And there are many. There are parts of the original gospel, hidden and minimized in many forms of more mainstream Christianity, that are emphasized in Anabaptist values. These can provide correctives to some skewed expressions of Christianity, and offer hope and a new vision to Christians disillusioned by what they see and don't see in current forms of popular Christianity. But it does not seek to turn people into Anabaptists. The room is big enough for many strands and expressions of Christianity. Anabaptist values can be incorporated into existing frameworks, providing a more robust and more genuine expressions of what it means to follow the gospel of Jesus Christ.

(This review is based on ARC supplied by the publisher through NetGalley.)

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Book Review: A God I’d Like to Meet

A God I'd Like to Meet: Separating the Love of God from Harmful Traditional Beliefs by Bob Edwards
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In this short book, Bob Edwards argues for the case that Calvinism and its modern manifestations are really ancient Platonism couched in Christian language. He presents the case that many of Augustine's key theological points were derived not from the Bible, but from Platonic philosophy. In turn, Calvin saw himself as a faithful inheritor of Augustine, and some of today's prominent theologians and preachers see themselves as faithful to Calvin.

Bob utilizes extensive quotes from Platonic philosophers, St. Augustine, John Calvin, John Piper, and a few others to build his case. The similarities in words and ideas from Plato to Piper are uncanny. Bob uses numerous Bible texts in his arguments against Calvinistic interpretations.

The first chapter is a high-level overview of what the remainder of the book discusses in more detail.

The second chapter deals with the overall theological framework, motivation, and history that drives Calvinism. Bob discusses how modern psychology sheds light on the formation and perpetuation of the framework. He concludes the chapter writing, "Calvinism, then, is a systematic method of interpreting the Bible through the interpretive lenses, or schemas, of a philosophy that predates Christianity by approximately 400 years."

The third chapter discusses the problems of assigning absolute sovereignty to God. Also is discussed the issues with the concept of predestination, sin, and evil as is understood through Calvinism.

The fourth chapter deals with reason vs. emotion. Bob shows how this is a direct descendant of Platonic dualism. He shows how this leads to the teaching that "anything coming from 'the self' was declared by Calvin to be unholy... Calvin's solution to his understanding of the problem of sin was very straightforward: the self must be annihilated... there must be a destruction of our ordinary nature... All of our natural inclinations, therefore, must be put to death." Bob discusses how this leads to the preoccupation of some Calvinist adherents to the concept of working to achieve holiness above all else.

The fifth chapter is a logical progression from the fourth: how Augustine's desire to eliminate human passion and emotion led to his doctrine of control of women, and how this doctrine persists in hierarchicalism, patriarchy, and complementarianism in some Christian groups today. Bob shows how this philosophy, again, is derived directly from Platonism and its followers. He also discusses how errant translations and faulty interpretations of key passages in the Bible have contributed to these erroneous and problematic doctrines.

The final chapter discusses a different picture of God: a God who is first of all, love, rather than all-controlling and whose primary attribute is depicted as holiness.

Bob writes in this final chapter,

Many people today turn away from a God who is depicted as controlling, abusive and sexist. I believe this is understandable. They reject God as he has been made known to them by church leaders following in the interpretive footsteps of Augustine and John Calvin. Fortunately, there is good news. The distorting lens of Platonic philosophy can be removed from our perception of God. When we remove this lens, I believe that we have an opportunity to see God in the way the biblical authors intended. We are able to perceive that God is love.

He concludes,

In fact, as one looks closely at some of the doctrines of St. Augustine, they can begin to look as if they are anything but Christian... Dualism, a hierarchy of spirit over body, denial of the free will of humanity and the doctrine of self-mortification; these are some of the philosophical principles that eventually led to the formation of the Gnostic heresy. Shockingly, they are also some of alleged “principal matters of Christian philosophy” through which John Calvin encouraged all believers to make sense of the Bible. He derived them from Augustine, and Augustine derived them from the “books of the Platonists.” Rather than being a benchmark for Christian orthodoxy, St. Augustine’s theology appears more like a “union of Christian and pagan doctrines.”

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in some of the historical and philosophical origins of Calvinism, to anyone who has problems with some of its doctrines, and to anyone who wants to explore a different Christian theological framework.

A devoted Calvinist ought to take a look and see if they are able to provide reasonable responses that don't depend on Augustine or Calvin's interpretive framework to explain the problems.

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Book Review: From the Maccabees to the Mishnah

From the Maccabees to the Mishnah by Shaye Cohen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The book describes itself as an introduction to the 350 or so years of Jewish history between the Maccabees to the Mishnah. For most people what is found in this book should be more than sufficient to inform and revise many commonly held assumptions about Jews, Judaism: their history, culture, society, religion, and politics during that time.

Chapter Eight is new in this Third Edition. This chapter discusses the "separation" that took place between Judaism and Christianity. What the chapter reveals is that this was a lengthy process and not nearly as clear-cut as it has been so frequently presented. In fact in some cases it is difficult to see that a "separation" actually took place since because there was no common communion between the two groups. In other cases a separation occurred, not because there was an explicit forcing out of Christianity from Judaism, but because it simply became difficult to maintain social connections when social practices became so different. These and other possibilities are discussed.

The end of the book includes extensive bibliography and suggestions for further study for those who desire to go beyond this "introduction."

Writing as a life-long Christian and as a pastor, this book opened my eyes to ways of thinking about the period of the gospels and the apostles in new ways. The relationships between Jesus, the apostles, the various Jewish sects, the controversies, the intent of the New Testament writings, etc. are far more complicated than is typically heard in Christian settings. The way Christians interpret and discuss Jews and Judaism of the period needs to become more nuanced and charitable. For example, the picture of Pharisees in the gospels are more stereotypes and caricatures than what history reveals as reality of the period. What seems to have happened is that later Christian attitudes crept into the preserved writings and their interpretations, which have been handed down as "true traditions" ever since. This book provides a needed corrective to the "jaundiced" tradition that Christians have received over the centuries and millennia.

I recommend this book to all pastors. As pastors we need to stop perpetuating inaccurate histories and traditions when accurate ones are available. Yes, doing so will challenge us in how to incorporate and present new understandings, and it will challenge our congregations.

(Based on ARC via NetGalley.)

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Assuming identification with the good guys

While reading the New Testament stories, when was the last time you identified with the Jewish leaders: the priests, the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the Scribes? When was the last time you pictured yourself as belonging to a group set to discredit Jesus and his apostles?

Through preaching, teaching, and reading we are conditioned to identify with the disciples and the apostles. With Jesus, too, though maybe not quite so explicitly as with the disciples. We are conditioned to view the Jewish leadership personas as the Evil Empire out to destroy Good. We are conditioned to assume that we are the persecuted and never the persecutor. Which is why, I believe, there is hardly ever a sermon or discussion where Christians are challenged to view themselves as ones who may be working against God’s will, who may be persecuting his true followers (who certainly don’t belong to my particular branch of Christianity or may not even go by the name “Christian”).

We are conditioned to believe that the Jewish leadership should have known better in regards to Jesus, the gospel message, and the apostles that taught the gospel. We are conditioned to assume the Jewish leaders realized and knew that their positions were all wrong and that Jesus and the apostles were right. We have been taught that the leadership were in knowing rebellion against the truth. But what if our assumptions are inaccurate and wrong?

But doesn’t the New Testament portray the Jewish leadership in opposition to Jesus and the truth? Yes. But the New Testament is not history – at least not history in the modern, academic sense of the word. It is more catechism, Christian propaganda, and at best a biased recollection of events flavored with strong overt purposes and agendas. As with any ideological movement, the early material that is produced must strongly differentiate between us vs. them (see any early writings of denominations to see this effect). These materials have to exaggerate the differences and keep silent where the opposition might gain sympathy.

Actual historical work paints a far more nuanced picture of the New Testament stories. The Jewish leadership believed they were right, and the holders and defenders of truth. They believed they had the correct picture of God. They believed that relationship with God was through their understandings, their doctrines, their traditions, their beliefs.

And then a splinter group comes along and beings telling them that their understanding is wrong, that God is far bigger and accepting than they had assumed and taught.

They are not fighting for their honor, but for God’s. They honestly believe that the splinter group is teaching lies about God. The splinter group is too liberal. This group is out to destroy the moral fabric of society with its new teachings. The TRUTH must be defended at all costs. Phinehas of the Old Testament (Numbers 25:10ff) was commended by God for personally going out and executing those who would bring lies, falsehood, and immorality into God’s community of Israel. Why shouldn’t the Jewish leaders do the same in regards to the splinter group who appear to be having the same effect in their contemporary Jewish society? God would be pleased, they believe.

So they seek to destroy Jesus and the apostles. All in the name of God, in the name of defending his name, his honor, his laws, his will, his morality.

Do you see any parallels with Christians – with us – today?