The Bible can be hazardous to one’s health if read with faulty expectations. Writing with compassion and wit, Russell Pregeant shows that reading “without interpretation” is impossible. The right question is, which assumptions are appropriate?
Pregeant addresses the most common and most harmful assumptions about the Bible, beginning with the expectation that it will always “speak” as directly and immediately as a fortune cookie. The Bible’s authority is not a matter of its factual, historical, or scientific accuracy—so it can hardly “disprove” scientific theories of evolution and the nature of the universe. It does not provide crystal ball-like glimpses of the future and is not a systematic blueprint for personal morality or public policy; these are distortions of the meaning of biblical prophecy and biblical ethics. And while the Bible has long been read as a source for Christian doctrine, Pregeant emphasizes that Christians must take responsibility for their own uses—and abuses—of the biblical text. Only when respect and reason take the place of slogans and ultimatums, he argues, can the Bible exercise an appropriate authority in a mature “life in the Spirit.”
With the Logos Bible Software edition of Reading the Bible for All the Wrong Reasons, every word is essentially a link, equipping you to search the entire collection for a particular verse or topic—“Creation,” for example, or “grace.” This gives you instant access to a wealth of information on historical and contemporary ethical thought.
