Permission Granted--Take the Bible into Your Own Hands

Jennifer Bird

Description

Millions of people around the world look to the Bible as a source of encouragement and faith formation, a reminder that God is love and is in control, and a guide to living one's life the way God desires. But this treasured book has also been misused and manipulated by many, placed on a pedestal of untouchability, and protected from questioning and honest engagement. In Permission Granted, Jennifer Grace Bird encourages people of faith to explore the texts on their own, freed from long-held myths and misconceptions; experience the Bible anew; and appreciate this holy book for what it isâ€"not what we think it should be.

With the sensitivity of one who has discovered this freedom herself, Bird invites readers to engage what the Bible really says about twelve key issues, including sin, sex, and the role of women.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Christian Education
• Philosophie et théologie
• Adult

Informations

• Publié par: Presbyterian Publishing Corporation
• Date de parution: 07 avril 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781611645705
• Langue: English

Extrait

Advance Praise for Permission Granted—Take the Bible into Your Own Hands
“Jennifer Bird has written an accessible, encouraging, and enlightening guide to understanding the Bible better. For those who love the Bible but have serious questions about it, Permission Granted offers information, fellowship, and ultimately the freedom to learn and explore without fear. This is a winsome yet challenging read that made me love the Bible all the more.”
— RACHEL HELD EVANS , author of A Year of Biblical Womanhood and Searching for Sunday
“Permission Granted is an excellent reentry point for honest, adult engagement with the Bible, whether you have been touched by it or burned by it (or both). This book is passionate without sacrificing compassion, academically informed but accessible. Jennifer Bird’s voice is a unique and important one: warm and witty, sage and occasionally snarky, but ultimately deeply reflective and profoundly serious about the troubles many people have with the Bible and how it is used by people today.”
— JOSEPH A. MARCHAL, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Ball State University
“Jennifer G. Bird is one of those professional readers of the Bible, and they are few and far between, who can both approach the texts as a sophisticated academic critic and translate such research and reading for everyday readers in lucid and effective fashion. Her goal throughout Permission Granted—Take the Bible into Your Own Hands is to get readers to read and to think on their own, drawing on their lives and experiences, as they go through difficult themes and texts. This she does with wisdom and power, with respect and kindness. I recommend the volume most heartily.”
— FERNANDO F. SEGOVIA, Oberlin Graduate Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity, Vanderbilt University
“Jennifer Bird is a God-wrestler who is willing to talk back to the Bible when it doesn’t make sense. Though some might be offended by her claims, I consider Bird’s book to be an excellent model for authentic discipleship and adult faith, written in very accessible, easy-flowing language.”
— MORGAN GUYTON, Director, NOLA Wesley Campus Ministry and Blogger at Patheos.com
“In a distinctly personal style, Jennifer Bird invites us to honor our own questions about the Bible. Rather than submit to scripture because ‘we’re supposed to’ or rejecting the Bible as irrelevant, Bird supplies readers with fresh information and new perspectives for making their own judgments on issues ranging from biblical sexualities and violence to what it means to believe in Jesus.”
— GREG CAREY, Professor of New Testament, Lancaster Theological Seminary
“Curious about the Bible? Jennifer Bird’s Permission Granted—Take the Bible into Your Own Hands gives you the tools to explore the Bible on your own. It provides clear questions and specific examples to help you reach your own conclusions about what the Bible means for you.”
— NYASHA JUNIOR, Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Howard University School of Divinity
“A great many academic biblical scholars, trained to read the Bible critically, previously read the Bible literally. Jennifer Grace Bird is one such scholar, but unlike most scholars she is able to write about the Bible in ways that nonacademic Bible readers will find accessible, engaging, and enlightening. This is not the only book of its kind, but, to my mind, it is the best of its kind. Unusual for a work of biblical scholarship, it has the potential to transform nonacademic lives.”
— STEPHEN D. MOORE, Edmund S. Janes Professor of New Testament Studies, The Theological School, Drew University
“Jennifer Bird has the rare skill of being able to write with flair for a nonacademic audience. Her impressive learning as a biblical scholar and her range of changing experiences in confessional and nonconfessional contexts are used to help guide the reader carefully and sensitively through some of the biggest topics in popular understandings of the Bible. Rather than simply dictate answers, Bird opens up opportunities for the reader to engage with the texts and the issues for themselves. I would warmly recommend this excellent book to anyone beginning the study of the Bible and to those who wish to explore alternatives to received understandings.”
— JAMES CROSSLEY, Professor of Bible, Culture and Politics, University of Sheffield, UK

© 2015 Jennifer Grace Bird
First edition Published by Westminster John Knox Press Louisville, Kentucky
19 20 21 22 23 24—10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3
All rights reserved . No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Westminster John Knox Press, 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202-1396. Or contact us online at www.wjkbooks.com .
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. and are used by permission.
Scripture quotations marked NIV are from The Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Book design by Drew Stevens Cover design by Dilu Nicholas
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bird, Jennifer G.
    Permission granted : take the Bible into your own hands / Jennifer Grace Bird. -- First edition.
        pages cm
    ISBN 978-0-664-26040-8 (alk. paper)
1.    Bible--Criticism, interpretation, etc. I. Title.
    BS511.3.B625 2015
    220.6--dc23
2014035970
Most Westminster John Knox Press books are available at special quantity discounts when purchased in bulk by corporations, organizations, and special-interest groups. For more information, please e-mail [e-mail] .
 
 
 
 
For Marianne and Jennings Bird, my parents, my cheerleaders, my heroes
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
 
  1.   What the Bible Is and Is Not
  2.   Two Creation Stories and Other Myths
  3.   What Really Happened in the Garden?
  4.   Sex: Who, What, and Why?
  5.   Violence: The Language Everyone Understands
  6.   Cover-Ups and Edited Stories
  7.   Biblical Women: Silent, Submissive Baby Makers?
  8.   Born of a Virgin?
  9.   Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up?
10.   Was Paul the First Christian?
11.   Judgment Day Is . . . Not Coming
12.   Now What?
Acknowledgments
I must first thank my editor, Jessica Miller Kelley, whose revisionary flair never once detracted from my own voice and who was a delight to work with every step of the way. Thank you, thank you. Thank you to Bridgett Green, biblical studies acquisitions editor for WJK, for seeing us as a good fit, and to the decision makers who gave this manuscript a chance.
I would like to thank the friends and family who read over early, and often way-too-long, versions of this project: Mark Exline, Joey Frenette, Teri Hammer, Leah Holle, Ty Jesse, Jessica Johnson, Roberta Lewis, Jessie Lindley-Curtice, Amanda Maness, Lori Matweeff, Ben McCarthy, Maureen Olsen, Aaron O’Neal, Paul Raker, Christine Vargas, and anyone else I have unintentionally overlooked. Most especially Brian Hughes, Pam Israel, and Whitney Keller, who all held up a flag of concern regarding the tone in early versions, which sent me back into a kind conversational mode, time and again. Brian’s unflagging excitement for and input on this project, which gave me a boost too many times to count, cannot be adequately acknowledged, so I hope this nod will suffice.
I could not have done the writing of this manuscript in such a focused way had it not been for the emotional and financial support of my parents; brother, Patrick; and sister-in-law, Lise Rowe; and for Bridget Saladino’s generosity of spirit and space, as she opened her home to me for the year of this project.
I’d like to thank Susan Sassmann and Kenny Shulman for telling me to get on with it. I’m ever so grateful to Jessica Bailey for the title, and to Jessica, Donna Deviney, Caye Spain, and Cindy Robbins for their moral support and general mother-like pride in what I am doing. To the two focus groups of rowdy, bawdy women who gathered with me to offer early input on the direction of this project: I am so grateful for those evenings and your ongoing excitement and support. My regular hikes and conversations with my Aunt Pam kept me grounded in the midst of this tumultuous, however exciting, journey.
The family and friends who made my summer promotional tour possible—Marianne and Jennings Bird, Kathryn Freeman, Teri Hammer, Abigail Henrich Sydnor, Brian and Jenevieve Hughes, Ellin and Al Jimmerson, Lynn and Barry Seaton, and Peterson Toscano and Glen Retief — gave me the gifts of warm and generous hospitality, thoughtful connections in their communities, a larger vision for how to employ this project, and, indirectly, last-minute revisionary nuggets for the manuscript. Bridget Saladino, Shane Shine, and Katie Bennett at Bridge Advantage made the marketing end of that trip possible. I am gratefully indebted to this august group for it all.
Finally, I am grateful to all the students I taught in introductory courses while in North Carolina, at Greensboro College, Guilford College, Rockingham Community College, and UNC-Greensboro. They are the people who helped me to refine my approach to these conversations. It is my hope that this book offers its readers similar moments of laughter, shock, disorientation, and freedom that regularly transpired within those classrooms.
Introduction
One of the main reasons people of faith read the Bible is to find out who God is and how we as humans can expect to relate to this God. The Bible, from this perspective, is a source of enco