How the Bible Actually Works

I wish I could give this more stars - and I wish Christians everywhere would read it with a receptive mind. What he writes in this book is exactly where the past few years have taken me, as I've wrestled with how the same scriptures can be understood so differently by apparently equally sincere believers, leading to such different views and sometimes to such un-Christlike behaviour. The more I learn about history, about the development of the Bible, about Jewish and Christian thinking through the ages, and about the world I live in now, the more I've come to believe exactly what Enns says here: The Bible is not a rule book. When we treat it that way we end up in idolatry. Understanding the Bible asks us to occasionally turn off the television, get off the internet, and spend time in reflection and prayer. Reading it as a list of unchanging commands for all eternity is a lot less work, but doing so requires that we overlook its historical contexts and resulting inconsistencies, ignore our own historical context, and disregard all other sources of wisdom available to us (like science).

(Full discloser: I received an advance copy of this book as a Harper One Partner)

Pete Enns has been an influential writer on the way I think about theology and the Bible in particular, so I was excited to see his thoughts about the proper use of scripture.

The main point of the book can be summarized as that the Bible is a collection of stories about God's children and their dealing with the Divine, which are then used by other writers to continue the conversation as their situations require and cultural/historical moments recontextualize their experience with God. As such, Enns posits that the modern posture that Christianity takes towards the Bible, namely that it is to be used as a rulebook containing final answers to all of life's questions when properly interpreted, is inconsistent and inappropriate, and that the correct posture is a guide to interpreting the nature and activity of God in culture and in life.

Overall, I think Enns makes his case well. Particularly the examples of the obviously different handlings of the stories such as Manasseh in different portions of the Hebrew scriptures make a strong case for his point, and helps provide a compelling framework for interpretations of books such as Jonah, and gives a better context for the handling of the Hebrew scripture by the New Testament writers. It is a refreshing and enlightening reminder of the complexity of the Hebrew scripture, and the reminders that the ambiguity and difficulty of the Scripture are a feature and not a bug. The most refreshing aspect of Enns' argument is the invitation to struggle with the scriptures, and the way he enables the reader to see the invitation within the scriptures themselves. Particularly for readers who might be struggling with reconciling the nature of the Bible with how they have traditionally view their relationship with God and with the Scripture.

As is typical of Enns' writing, he keeps a light conversational tone. I understand the decisions, as he is writing about heavy topics that could potentially offend sensibilities and rock the world view of the reader, balancing it with humor, pop culture references, and casual language is a reasonable way to keep the tone of the book from being too confrontational or stressful to read. This does have the issue, though not as much as Enns' other writing, of occasionally coming across as glib or mocking, particularly when referencing politics or other schools of theological thought, that could easily be a turnoff to readers that do not already have one foot inside Enns' school of thought. Some of the jokes are also so timely and specific that the book will feel dated much sooner that it otherwise needs to.
Enns could also do a better job of addressing the concept of a closed canon. Enns frequently references "apocryphal" books of Scripture and non-canonical writings from the New Testament era. His writing suggests that he does hold the Christian Bible in particularly high regard, but he also quotes these sources not considered canonical in many Christian circles, while never making a clear distinction of how his stance towards those books differs from the common canon, or if it differs at all. This opens the book up to counter-arguments that could be avoided if that stance was made more clear.

Overall Enns' makes a refreshing and valuable case that, when applied correctly, the Bible enables us to live our lives with wisdom once we see that its purpose was not to provide hard and fast answers to how life should be lived. While there are arguments that could be clearer and the tone of the writing lends itself to unnecessary criticism, Enns makes his case well and those who are interested in broadening their perspective of ways to read the Bible would do well to pay attention to his argument. The call to wisdom is a beautiful and meaningful one, and Enns makes a wonderful case for this practice.

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