The Bible is Dead; Long live the Bible
The Chronicle of Higher Ed has an interesting article from Timothy Beal about the life and death of the Bible. Check it out.
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CFH Grad Students Weblog 
April 21, 2011 at 6:00 pm
If I understand this author, we can go ahead and stop treating the bible as historial in any faith-building fashion.
I understand the crux of the article to be “faith is what you make it – let the bible guide your imaginations!” I was especially amused by his comment about how some people seek a bible with “values.”
Look, the bible is certainly full of mystery, questions (see the ending of Jonah!), and should stir our imaginations (CS Lewis would wholeheartedly agree, I presume). But by the same token, there are “values” in it. Jesus certainly did care about how people lived and how they related to God. Many times in the gospels Jesus tells people “Your faith has healed you. Go and sin no more.” He does not say, “You have such a wonderful imagination. I love unicorns, too – I should have created them!”
The bible is the true history about how we all were created for intimacy with God and each other, how we betrayed those relationships, and God’s quest to restore those relationships.
January 15, 2013 at 4:38 am
you’re right. Jesus said, as someone who spoke God’s words, the two great things we have to do are… love God and love each other. easy to say, but hard to do.