Understanding the Bible: An Introduction for Skeptics, Seekers, and Religious Liberals [Paperback]

John Buehrens (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 2004

A thoughtful, warm, and witty introduction Understanding the Bible is designed to help empower skeptics, seekers, nonbelievers, and those of a liberal and progressive outlook to reclaim the Bible from literalists. In making accessible some of the best contemporary historical, literary, political, and feminist readings of the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, it encourages all who would find in the biblical heritage an ally and not an enemy in the quest for a more just and humane world. Brief and to the point, it can easily be used to stimulate group discussions and personal reading of the biblical texts themselves, and is an excellent introduction to the Judeo-Christian tradition for those of other faiths.

Understanding the Bible includes four preliminary chapters on the why, who, which, and how of biblical understanding, followed by eight brief thematic chapters covering the core of the Hebrew Bible and six covering the Christian scriptures, plus chronologies, maps, and helpful suggestions for further reading.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

According to this engaging but not always convincing liberal gloss on the Good Book, biblical literalism is an idolatrous departure from the Bible's "enduring but non-literal wisdom," which progressives can reclaim through informed interpretations of biblical metaphor and symbolism. Drawing on historical and contemporary Bible scholarship, Buehrens, a Unitarian minister and co-author of A Chosen Faith, gives an illuminating if brief rundown of each book in the Bible, one informed by feminist, literary and lefty political critiques. The results are mixed. Themes of liberation and social justice emerge in the Exodus narrative, the Prophetic books and the Gospels. But on fundamentalist hot-button issues like homosexuality and women's rights, the Bible's clear statements defy interpretive rehabilitation. Faced with outright prohibition on a man "lying with a man as with a woman," Buehrens suggests that "the inner spirit of what is intended" there might be different. He champions "reading against the grain": with that interpretive strategy, the New Testament's urging of submissiveness on wives and servants, for example, attests to husbands' and masters' anxiety over the egalitarianism of Church congregations. And his anti-literalist, Bible-as-metaphor approach sometimes throws the religion out with the bathwater, as when nonbelievers are reassured that stories of miracles and resurrections can also be seen as metaphorical rather than actual events. Unfortunately, Buehrens's laudable attempt at "reading the Bible to overcome oppression" drains away much substantive content.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

In his introduction, Buehrens offers several compelling reasons for studying the Bible. You aren't fully literate without it; if you can't or won't understand it, others will interpret it for you. And to his mind, most importantly, you can't be spiritually mature by simply rejecting the Bible as oppressive. Buehrens, who is affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist church, offers humanist or liberal interpretations solidly based on the original texts, and he also draws on other historical and literary sources to bolster his explanations. Although this is by necessity an overview, Buehrens does a masterful job of coursing through both Testaments, placing events and pronouncements in context of both prevailing theology and the times. An interesting balance to biblical interpretations that are weighted in the other direction. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press (June 15, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807010537
• ISBN-13: 978-0807010532
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.5 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #180,842 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #12 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Other Practices > Unitarian Universalism

More About the Author

John Buehrens was president of the Unitarian Universalist Association from 1993 to 2001. He is now minister of the First Parish in Needham, Massachusetts, and special assistant to the secretary general of the World Conference of Religions for Peace. He is author of Understanding the Bible, coauthor, with Forrest Church, of A Chosen Faith, and coauthor, with Rebecca Ann Parker, of A House for Hope.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book!, August 22, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Understanding the Bible: An Introduction for Skeptics, Seekers, and Religious Li berals (Hardcover)

If you consider yourself a traditionalist or a modernist or neither, you will find this book a tremendous aid in interpreting Hebrew and Christian scriptures. I highly recommend this book to anyone wishing to wrest the bible from the pejorative ranks of literalism.

If you've ever lived in a place where people use the bible to justify ever action, and you do not have knowledge of the bible, you may have found that you had arrived at a battle and you were unarmed. If you've ever been to a place where people use the bible as a cookbook, applying the letter of its content, but not the spirit, and do authoritative damage to others, then you will find John Buehrens' book, Understanding the Bible, a refreshing, easy-to-read book that captures the spirit of the bible while providing the reader with the necessary armor to shield them against any biblical interpretation that is based in disguised fear rather than compassion.

John Buehren looks at the bible through a modern-day lens that includes both Jewish and feminist perspectives that enables us to unchain the bible from the past and make it relevant and useful for the 21st Century.

Whether you consider yourself to be a skeptic, seeker, or religious liberal, neglecting the rich rhetoric and iconic power of the bible is to ignore the impact that it has had on western Society and continues to have. Buehrens looks at historical aspects, original intent, and how tradition has reshaped the historical literature of the bible. Understanding the bible is key to our being interpreters of our common Judaeo-Christian heritage and is key to taking responsibility for our own spiritual maturation. Rather than preach about the bible, Buehrens eloquently writes of the bible and explores its narrative as metaphor so that we may transcend any arbitrary boundaries or creedal beliefs and enter into a relationship with others by finding common ground for which to begin conversations so that we may live together in harmony.

For anyone who wishes to understand the bible and apply its content to today's world, John Buehrens' book, Understanding the Bible, is a must read.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everyone should read this book!, May 26, 2005

By 

L. Frizzell-reynolds "Lance" (W. Mass.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Understanding the Bible: An Introduction for Skeptics, Seekers, and Religious Li berals (Hardcover)

I recommend this book to everyone I know, no matter what their religion or lack there of! Rev. Buehrens helps open up the Bible and educate you enough to read it and come to your own conclusions, whether you agree with everything he says or not. I'm a new Muslim and highly recommend this to all people because the Bible truly is part of literature and history and should be read and known by all. I was actually recommended this book by a rabbi friend who believes that despite it covering the ENTIRE Bible (Old and New Testaments), he points out that it shows the literary importance and historical importance of the work as a whole, no matter what your
(dis)beliefs are.
Take the time and READ THIS BOOK!

29 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Bare-Bones Introduction, August 18, 2005

By 

J. Atlas "writer and editor" (Northern Delaware, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Understanding the Bible: An Introduction for Skeptics, Seekers, and Religious Liberals (Paperback)

I've come to believe that expectations matter a lot when you pick up a book to read. For me, this book fell short of my expectation, but then again, my expectations were probably unreasonable.

I attended a Christian liberal arts college, majoring in English, and decided to take quite a few Bible classes as electives. I knew that there would never be another time like then to explore the issues raised by the biblical text. My professors were fantastic (language experts, brilliant people, and progressive Christians), so my understanding of the Bible flourished there.

Fast forward one and a half years, and I find myself forgetting much of what I learned. Buehren's book, however, did little to help me regain my intellectual footing. Had I skimmed a bit before leaving the library, I would have seen that he planned, excepting the first couple chapters, to summarize the entire Bible. There was scant analysis or interpretation.

If you haven't read the Bible through and desire a sense of narrative (what happens and when), this would be a great starting point for study. However, if you are looking more for help understanding and appreciating the stories of the Bible, I'd point you towards a topical study instead. Buehrens would do well to take his abilities and understanding and apply them to a book-length study of a book of the Bible, say, Exodus, instead of wrangling with the whole massive thing in one short book.