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ebree123's review
3.0
Lots to commend about this book. As an overall primer on non literal interpretations of the Bible, it's great, but there's also a lot of grand large statements and personal conjecture that seem to be miscategorized as fact. There are a ton of footnotes the author attaches to big claims that would seem to require citation, but when you review the footnotes at the end of the chapter, it's often just the author repeating the statement without referring you to the source of the info. This seems misleading and is frustrating for a reader looking to find other references to explore on these topics.
saboo's review
4.0
In this book, Marcus J. Borg rejects a literalist interpretation of the Bible, and builds a case for reading the Bible within a historical context, from a primarily metaphorical point of view. He wants the reader to understand the historical moment each section of the Bible was written in and how it reflects the authors’ worldviews within that moment. He underlines that the books of the Bible were not intended for a modern audience and shouldn’t be read as though they were.
I read this book as a recent convert from lapsed Roman Catholicism to a liberal Protestant form of worship, and a member of a largely secular social circle. I was raised as a Roman Catholic, which varied from a focus on Jesus’ love to threats of hellfire, depending on my teachers. I ultimately left the faith because I didn’t think anyone could live up to its restrictive, and frankly awful, set of rules.
Borg gives me hope that I can still connect to the joy I have felt in worship without needing to condemn other people for the social mores of people 2,000+ years dead. The values I hold to be true and worthwhile are most often the point: recognizing the wonder in the world and being an agent of hope and social justice. I don’t need to check off a laundry list of “correct” beliefs, but I can use the Bible as a source of inspiration (and I certainly don’t need to limit it to that).
He views the rift in the two main ways of seeing the Bible—factual vs. metaphorical—as two ways of seeing truth. As someone who has always seen the value and truth present in fiction and myth, I don’t think the factuality of the Bible is especially relevant for discerning its truth.
It is certainly an act of confirmation bias to say this book felt true to me, but it was comforting nevertheless.
I read this book as a recent convert from lapsed Roman Catholicism to a liberal Protestant form of worship, and a member of a largely secular social circle. I was raised as a Roman Catholic, which varied from a focus on Jesus’ love to threats of hellfire, depending on my teachers. I ultimately left the faith because I didn’t think anyone could live up to its restrictive, and frankly awful, set of rules.
Borg gives me hope that I can still connect to the joy I have felt in worship without needing to condemn other people for the social mores of people 2,000+ years dead. The values I hold to be true and worthwhile are most often the point: recognizing the wonder in the world and being an agent of hope and social justice. I don’t need to check off a laundry list of “correct” beliefs, but I can use the Bible as a source of inspiration (and I certainly don’t need to limit it to that).
He views the rift in the two main ways of seeing the Bible—factual vs. metaphorical—as two ways of seeing truth. As someone who has always seen the value and truth present in fiction and myth, I don’t think the factuality of the Bible is especially relevant for discerning its truth.
It is certainly an act of confirmation bias to say this book felt true to me, but it was comforting nevertheless.
j00j's review
4.0
This is a really fascinating look at various ways of reading the Bible. The author is definitely writing from an historical, non-literal perspective but does cover the literal viewpoint as well. He's also writing from a Christian perspective, but I think those just looking for information on how various people look at the Bible will find this really helpful as well (and so I particularly recommend it to Julian). The writing is clear and accessible, although it's possible that those not even as versed in some of this material as I am may have some questions. More thoughts on this here or possibly in a blog post later.
kitm's review
5.0
I know that many of us were raised as Christians and have since left the religion. I'm aware of the many arguments in particular leftists make against religion. I was happy to see a sensible way of reading the Bible that made more sense than "Some of this is the word of god and some of this is human error - you choose!" But what I found even more exciting was the argument of Christianity having a God as a liberator who destabilizes the political order in favor of the oppressed. Good stuff.
unionmack's review against another edition
3.0
Flannery O'Connor's depiction of the South as "Christ-haunted" is an apt description of my own 20s. While I've departed from Christianity, I can't seem to escape Christ. Borg's a very down-to-earth teacher and theologian so this is a great one to read if you're looking for a less literal, more inclusive and all-around (in my opinion) better approach to Christianity than is typically offered in American evangelicalism. He didn't really show me anything flabbergastingly new here because I'd seen a lot of these basic ideas before in my other reading on the subject (*pretentiously adjusts glasses, makes snooty face*). But seriously, if you've read contemporary, non-evangelical Christian theology in general, you probably have to! With that said, they're just as inspiring to me now as they've ever been before, if not more. I'd highly recommend this over a lot of other books as an introduction to those ideas and modes of interpretation. There were a number of moments where I thought his interpretation of scripture was really stretching so as to fit a more comfortable, progressive worldview but, overall, I found his analysis here honest and intriguing. Essentially, the book makes the argument God is a real force aiming for humankind to adopt a more compassionate and just way of living. In 2017 America, that's the sort of old-time religion I'm more than willing to keep touting the benefits of.
kitm's review against another edition
5.0
I know that many of us were raised as Christians and have since left the religion. I'm aware of the many arguments in particular leftists make against religion. I was happy to see a sensible way of reading the Bible that made more sense than "Some of this is the word of god and some of this is human error - you choose!" But what I found even more exciting was the argument of Christianity having a God as a liberator who destabilizes the political order in favor of the oppressed. Good stuff.