“They say art should afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. I think the same is true for Scripture.” – Rachel Held Evans
Rachel Held Evans grew up in a conservative Christian church where her passion for God was encouraged. Her questions, however, often were not. But that didn’t mean the questions went away. In Inspired, she engages the Bible, not as the facts-and-figures literal account she was always taught it was nor as the everything-is-relative figurative interpretations popular with many progressives, but as stories, told in a specific context and powerful enough to unlock truth and hope.
“We may wish for answers, but God rarely gives us answers. Instead, God gathers us up into soft, familiar arms and says, ‘Let me tell you a story.'”
This book would be most useful for Christians who want to love God with their whole hearts, souls, and minds, which probably means not having to switch any of them off when reading scripture. The Bible is full of stories of heroism and kindness and love. The Bible is also full of stories of cowardice and greed and hate. And if you’re reading literally, God doesn’t always end up on what one might consider the right side of the stories.
Take the book of Job, for example. When I was young, Job was my least favorite book. The God in Job is a real jerk, especially if you take a strictly literal reading. God allows this man’s life to be destroyed and completely ignores the pain of Job’s wife who lost everything and everyone he did, just so he can prove he’s better than Satan.
But when read not as an actual retelling of what God did but rather through the lens of instruction – and yes, even hope – it can read more like this:
“…it’s not the learned theologians who get the peek at glory, but the man who said, with candor and courage, ‘I desire to argue with God.'”
I didn’t expect to like this book as much as I did. I expected it to sit heavier on me, but the effect was just the opposite. I enjoyed the descriptions of the different types of stories (my favorites being the resistance stories and the wisdom stories), and the organization into these categories made it easy to follow. I also enjoyed snippets like this:
“…from Proverbs 27:14: ‘If anyone loudly blesses their neighbor early in the morning, it will be taken as a curse.’ As we say in the Episcopal Church, this is the Word of the Lord.“
Although it took me a while to get started and to finish, the slow reading is more indicative of the challenges of wrestling with Scripture rather than with Inspired itself. I recommend for anyone who would like to refresh their approach to the Bible.
I received a copy of Inspired from BookLook Bloggers in exchange for an honest review.
