Reading the Bible Again for the First Time: Taking the Bible Seriously but Not Literally

OK, I have to admit here that there is no way I would have picked up and actually read a book with a title as long and serious-sounding as Reading the Bible Again for the First Time: Taking the Bible Seriously but Not Literally if it weren't what the new Bible Study class I'm going to was reading. I started the class when they were 1/2-way thru the book, so I read the last half of the book first, then found it interesting enough to go back and read the first half on my own.

This is NOT light reading. This is the kind of book where you read a chapter, think about it for a few days, then read the next. Sometimes you read 2-3 pages, think about it for a few days, then finish the chapter. Unless you have a lot of free time to think, but since I don't it took me a few days to do the thinking.

So, if you are an ultra-conservative, fundamentalist Christian who has no interest in seeing other views or considering anything to not be black or white, stop reading here. This is NOT the book for you. For the rest of you, Borg's basic premise is that the Bible is not a literal, historical work and is not to be taken as such. It is a *sacred* work of literature and IS to be taken as such. Did God create the world in a literal seven days or are we to take into account the face that "God's time isn't our time" in the Genesis account. Doesn't matter. Borg's not even sure there really were an Adam and Eve. What he is sure of is that these stories do carry a message about the sacred traditions of our faith. Instead of trying to figure out what was a historical fact and what was an allegorical story, Borg focuses on looking at what the stories MEAN. Both for the Hebrews who wrote them and for us in post-modern America.

What I personally find interesting is that this is apparently an extremely "liberal" view of the Bible since, well, this is kind of how I've always seen the Bible. Lately I've been wondering where I got this viewpoint I have, so it was nice to see someone else sees it the same way. The Bible's primary importance is as a a sacred work of guidance for our lives, not as a history book.

This was a hard to read but worth it book. I can't go thru everything the guy says, but will say it's worth the effort if you have even a passing interest the Bible.