I have really enjoyed the recent conversations about Reading the Bible better and the book of Revelation. I will pick up on those themes tomorrow and Thursday.

Until then, I wanted to point to one of my favorite blogs with professor of Bible J. Daniel Kirk. He has been reviewing a new book about the Impossible Bible and he said something really true about those of us raised or converted into a tradition that reads the Bible in too-tight a way (mostly ignorant of it’s cultural context among other things).

Students who believe in this kind of Bible but then leave the world that makes it plausible by going to, say, a public university or a differently oriented seminary or, worst of all a PhD program and there encounter the real Bible for the first time–well, they lose their faith. Or, they have to go through so much intellectual reconfiguring of their faith that its persistence stands in question.

We see this over and over again in Pastoral circles. It is only going to get worse with people like Bart Erhman (who this happened to) promoting all the ugly stuff that young believers are usually protected/sheltered from .

You can also get the Bible Made Impossible by Christian Smith here.

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