Stephen Burnhope’s How to Read the Bible Well is a wonderful resource for anyone who is either newly becoming acquainted with the Bible, or who wishes to learn more about the best way to read, interpret and extract meaning from the Bible. The book might have been aptly named How to Read the Bible Rationally, or Honestly just as well, for it describes several ways in which the Bible has been and still is, misunderstood. It is aimed more towards the general reader than trained clergy, it seems to me. That said, there are several important discussions of modernity, post-modernity and meta-narrative and other themes that are well worth a professional’s attention.

The book begins by asking us to consider what we mean when we say that the Bible is the “Word of God.” Is it to be understood as direct communication from God or is it always going to be the interpreted Word of God? If it’s the latter, then it’s appropriate to ask who’s doing the interpretation and what the ground rules might that help us to get it right. Burnhope seems to be quite familiar with ways in which the Bible is misused, citing proof-texting, confirmation bias and imposition of our own worldviews as interpretative filters. The Bible, he explains, doesn’t answer our questions, but rather only those of the original authors.

Burnhope explains the structure of the Bible the way one might have it explained in formation, which is important for new readers. Different Christian denominations might take issue with his count of the number of books in the received canon, but he does devote a chapter to the different translations of the Bible and what implications are associated with that. His discussion of the King James Version is helpful, but those brought up with it might find it uncomfortable to hear. Likewise, Burnhope’s description of what the Bible is not might offend the sensibilities of fundamentalists, but he doesn’t apologize for that. Instead, he spends considerable effort on explaining how context and the assumptions of both the original authors and current readers must be appreciated to get our interpretations right.

I found his metaphor for the “box set” based on the letter “C” (Season 1: Crisis, Commitment, Commandments, Conversations; Season 2: Christ; Season 3: Cast; Finale – Completion) both intriguing and likely to be of considerable help to new readers who want to have a way of expressing the overall trajectory of the Biblical story cogently and succinctly. The metaphor also serves to introduce Burnhope’s main interpretative filter for the entire Bible, which is (not surprisingly) Jesus (see p.76). This is different that the usual literal, allegorical, anagogical and tropological approach that characterizes other interpretative schemata.

If the interpretive scheme for the Bible is Jesus, it’s necessary to spend some time examining just who he was.  Burnhope’s discussion of Jesus’ two natures is a bit slim, but it gets the job of explaining that Jesus wasn’t Superman done quite well. In doing so, he has chosen to emphasize Jesus’ humanity, not explicitly at the expense of his divinity, but rather to express the immediate relevance of Jesus to us. God is indeed involved in the human condition.

I would’ve liked to have seen some discussion of Arianism along with the treatment of Docetism, linked expressly to the theme of prevailing metanarratives that appears elsewhere in the book. Along with quotes from Max Lucado, reference to the medieval Cursor Mundi and earlier texts that attempt to fill in the blanks in Jesus’ life might have been useful, to point out that such speculation has been going on for a long time.

Burnhope’s discussion of fallacious approaches to the Bible, his treatment of ancient versus current notions of what’s “obvious” (p. 92), modernity and post-modernity (e.g., p. 88-89) as well as his discussion of metanarrative (p. 103 ff) provide a useful backdrop not only to the study of the Bible, but for understanding the field upon which evangelism plays nowadays. They will surely challenge the approach some people take to the Bible concerning what’s “obvious.”

A person new to Biblical exegesis will likely find the discussions about the Old Testament and early Judaism edifying. Identifying Jesus as a halachic Jew might come as a surprise to some, who have operated under the assumption that Jesus was very simply just the first Christian. Importantly, it clarifies the distinction between who we think of as Jews today with who the Jews of so many stripes really were at the time of Jesus. This is a critical insight that readers of the Bible do well to take to heart, to prevent the kind of anti-Semitism that has plagued the history of Christianity. A reference somewhere to the principles of interreligious engagement articulated in the papal encyclical Nostra Aetate would have been of use somewhere along the line, especially since at various point he discusses Jewish, Catholic, Muslim and pagan notions of what the Word of God is.

I found the chapter on Heaven and Hell a bit weak. Interested readers might prefer something along the line of Peter Kreeft’s Everything You Wanted to Know about Heaven, but Never Asked, Bart Ehrman’s Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife, W.H. Auden’s poem Hell, and YouTube NDE videos from IANDS, particularly Dr. Mary Neal’s account of her experience.

I was intrigued by the distinction that Burnhope drew between meaning and significance (p.207 ff). Although it’s critically important to understand as best we can what the original context of the writings was, it’s also important to be sensitive to how Biblical texts affect us in meaningful ways in our own contexts. Burnhope calls this “Biblical theology,” and as long as one is clear and honest about the difference between what the Bible means and what I mean there’s nothing not to like about it. Indeed, it may be the way the Holy Spirit speaks to us, even though the official canon of Scripture is closed.

I would recommend this book to anyone, particularly of a Protestant denomination, who wishes to become more intimate with the Word of God. Burnhope has done a creditable job, with flair, intelligence and humor.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author and/or publisher through the Speakeasy blogging book review network. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR,Part 255.