He supports this by showing differences in the accounts among the four Gospels and differences between the accounts of the monarchies in Samuel/Kings and Chronicles as well as by identifying how origins stories in Genesis and Exodus seem shaped to explain the present at the time of the writers (during the Monarchy or the Exile). Second, Enns argues that the Biblical writers, rather than simply reporting the past, were actively shaping it in their accounts. However, the story of God moved on – to Jesus. According to Enns, God allowed Himself to be portrayed this way because “He lets His people tell their story.” The Israelites existed in a certain time and place and used the ideas available to them, which included the idea of God as a tribal warlord. That’s because God isn’t actually the kind of God that would order the death of the Canaanites – this was only how He was understood by the Israelites in their context. While most Bible readers, Enns writes, want to fill in the blank at the end of the phrase, “It’s a perfectly fine and right thing for God to order the extermination of Canaanites and take their land because _,” in fact this blank does not need to be filled in. However, as Enns works through specific examples to illustrate his descriptions, the controversial nature of his claims becomes clearer.įirst, Enns argues that God isn’t actually like the figure of God conveyed in the Old Testament when He orders the death the inhabitants of the land of Canaan. For Christians, many of the Old Testament Laws given to the Israelites are not understood to be “timelessly binding,” such as the command not to eat pork. ![]() It’s clear that many parts of the Bible are not rules, such as the poetic Psalms, and that the biblical works weren’t “downloaded” but were written down by people at particular points in history. ![]() Enns uses a collection of vague terms and phrases to describe what he believes are wrong views of the Bible: “rulebook” and “truth downloaded from heaven” and “a point-by-point exhaustive and timelessly binding list of instructions about God and the life of faith.” According to Enns, these are all wrong ways of talking about the Bible.Īnd most Christians would agree. I read it in one sitting the evening after I received it as a Christmas present.Īnother reason the book doesn’t seem controversial is that the view of the Bible it claims to support isn’t, on the surface, too different than what most Christians actually believe. It’s a light-hearted, humorous read aimed for popular audiences, with chapter titles such as “Jesus Was Actually Jewish (Go Figure)” and “God Seems Like a Regular Joe.” It’s entertaining. In addition to losing his job, Enns left his conservative church community for an Episcopal church because, as he writes in a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” forum, “Sometimes you have to find new communities of faith (as I did) where who you are is valued, not demeaned.” Enns now teaches at Eastern University and maintains a blog called “Rethinking Biblical Christianity.”Īt first glance, The Bible Tells Me So doesn’t seem too controversial. ![]() In 2008, Enns was suspended from his tenured position at the conservative Christian school Westminster Theological Seminary, following a two-year theological debate regarding his 2005 book Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament. When Enns was suspended, the chairman of WTS’ board told Christianity Today that Enns’ book failed to affirm the school’s standards of faith, namely the Westminster Confession of Faith, because the view of the Bible in the book did not fall within the bounds of the doctrine of biblical inerrancy. It’s a controversial book from a controversial author. Rather than try to explain away these difficulties, Enns says, Christians should accept the Bible as it is: “messy, trouble, weird, and ancient.” In his new book The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It, Enns claims that rather than being a “rulebook” or a “spiritual owner’s manual,” as he claims many Christians believe, the Bible is an “inspired model for our own spiritual journey.” To support this view, he takes readers on a tour through the Old and New Testaments, pointing out God’s violent commands during the Israelites’ conquest of Canaan, the presence of diverse views of God and what it means to follow Him across biblical passages, and the lack of historical evidence to confirm biblical accounts of the past. What is the Bible? The Word of God? Inspired? Inerrant? Infallible? Truth? None of the above?Īccording to biblical scholar Peter Enns, many Christians are wrong about the nature of the book they consider Scripture.
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