Reading the Bible Again for the First Time

Chapter One

Reading Lenses:
Seeing the Bible Again

The key word in the title of this book -- Reading the Bible Again for the First Time -- is "again." It points to my central claim. Over the past century an older way of reading the Bible has ceased to be persuasive for millions of people, and thus one of the most imperative needs in our time is a way of reading the Bible anew.

Reading and seeing go together. On the one hand, what we read can affect how we see. On the other hand, and more important for my immediate purpose, how we see affects how we read. What we bring to our reading of a text or document affects how we read it. All of us, whether we use reading glasses or not, read through lenses.

As we enter the twenty-first century, we need a new set of lenses through which to read the Bible. The older set, ground and polished by modernity, no longer works for millions of people. These lenses need to be replaced. The older way of seeing and reading t ... read full excerpt from Reading the Bible Again for the First Time: Taking the Bible Seriously But Not Literally ebook