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informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
The author hit it out of the park and out of this world, Pete shares his spiritual journey in relation to developing a deeper understanding of the Bible in relation to science, history, and culture. Over the past year I became familiar with the author from the Bible for Normal People podcast. I appreciate how he is able to explain the history and culture of the time when the Bible was written in order to obtain a greater understanding of the original content and context. In this book the author shares their spiritual journey. My own evolution of faith lacked much of the language, cultural, and historical knowledge that the author provides, though learning more about the vastness of the universe helped me to have a belief and understanding of God as more than can be contained in a book written by writers several millennia ago.
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I have appreciated all the books I've read that Pete has written. I think this is number 4 or 5. It was an interesting one for me, because it's the first book I read from a place completely outside Evangelical Christianity, or Christianity with any other adjectve attached. Having previously been certain of God's existence and position as Creator and Sustainer, I am now very much uncertain and, I am realizing more and more, traumatized by the expectation of a certainty to which I have no expectation of returning. Pete questioned his faith, doubted God, and found himself living as is God exists, though he can't surely know. I questioned my faith, doubted God and find myself living as if God does not exist, though I can't surely know. The two positions have more in common than I might have imagined a dozen or so years ago when I first started to recognize I had questions I wasn't prepared to answer, and maybe no one else was either. Although this is primarily written in the style of a memoir, I found myself reading along to see the connections between Pete's experiences and his changes of faith, and to dive deeper into my own experiences and look at the understanding I have had and am continuing to rediscover about just what faith might mean.
challenging
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
medium-paced
Solid read, not as paradigm-altering as I was thinking it might be, but thinking on it over the next few weeks/months might bring me some more appreciation for it.
emotional
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
4.5/5 - Stronger than “How the Bible Actually Works” because Enns more clearly lays out what he means when he says that faith in God and interpretation of the Bible morphs with our experiences, time, and location. The way historically recent scientific discoveries about the universe and the subatomic level of matter impact how we see God are the most convincing.
informative
reflective
slow-paced