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Making Sense Of The Bible: Rediscovering The Power Of Scripture Today (2014)

by Adam Hamilton(Favorite Author)

4.47 of 5 Votes: 5

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

HarperOne

review 1: This would be the quintessential lay guide to understanding Moderate to Liberal perspectives on interpretations of the Bible. It is quite readable even for those not terribly interested in theology, but also remains accessible to amateur theo geeks and beyond. Hamilton's style of hybrid mainline pastor and "evangelicalized" moderate really comes through in the book.This book should be read while avoiding the temptation to expect all-satisfying answers and solutions to traditional and conservative exegesis. It's strength exists in the explanation of many positions in an accessible manner. It's weakness also lay intertwined with its strength in that sometimes a little further depth perhaps could clear up some more ambiguity. With the complexity of the church's current cultur... moree war battles, it felt like the designated chapters had been condensed a little too much.Hamilton did a great job illustrating the positions when it comes to inspiration. While remaining charitable towards those who hold to plenary inspiration, he elucidated the counter arguments successfully in the amount of text employed.As outlined in Goodreads reviews already, I found this quote interesting because it addresses the consequences of various adherence to doctrines of inspiration:"While affirming that the Bible is inspired by God, a key premise of this book is that the Bible's authors were inspired by the Spirit in the same way and to the same degree as many contemporary preachers and prophets and even ordinary Christians have been inspired by the Spirit in every age."This would be a very Methodist statement, given that Hamilton is a Methodist pastor in the mainline tradition. It is refreshing to see awareness of the consequences of ones views on inspiration, regardless of belief. This comes through quite well in his argument about the proximity of the NT writers to Jesus and the tradition that the church universal passed down from there.With that said, I think you'll read this book in one of two ways. If you're in the liberal to moderating-liberal camp, then you'll find much to agree with. If you are of a more conservative traditional persuasion, then you'll find some challenges and areas to grow, but you will disagree with a few key conclusions of the author.I found the book challenging and enlightening. It caused me to think, even if I did not necessarily agree with the conclusions of the author at all times. I would like to have seen a little more word count devoted to addressing passages like Ananias and Sapphira in acts, because I felt the understanding of the tough passages in the OT were a little cursory.All in all, I would recommend this book to anyone looking to review their understanding of Holy Scripture. I think you can benefit from this book, regardless of persuasion.
review 2: Having grown up being taught verbal plenary inspiration and the doctrine of inerrancy, this book was both a refreshing look at Scripture as God's word through human experience and a challenging perspective that leaves much to be considered. The summaries of the Old and New Testaments were great as well as the summaries of the different areas of modern biblical criticism that give any reader an introduction of the long discussions going on within academia. The ideas found in this book would be new to evangelicals but quite obvious to mainline traditions from what I understand. This book provides a different way of understanding Scripture while continuing to see it as very relevant to the faithful Christian walk. less

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