The Bible for grown-ups
Subtitle: a new look at the good book
By: Simon Loveday
Publisher: Icon Books Ltd
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 285
ISBN-13: 9781785781315
Copyright date: 2016
Subjects: Criticism, interpretation; Bible
Description: 'The Bible for Grown-Ups' neither requires, nor rejects, belief. It sets out to help intelligent adults make sense of the Bible - a book that is too large to swallow whole, yet too important in our history and culture to spit out. Why do the creation stories in Genesis contradict each other? Did the Exodus really happen? Was King David a historical figure? Why is Matthew's account of the birth of Jesus so different from Luke's? Why was St Paul so rude about St Peter?
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 267-275) and index.
Table of contents: title: Prologue; title: The Old Testament (1. The structure of the Bible ; 2. The authority of the Bible ; 3. The historical context: the world in which the Old Testament took shape ; 4. The structure and purpose of the Old Testament ; 5. The Old Testament as history: what story does the Old Testament tell? And is it true? ; 6. The Old Testament as morality: what kind of god is God? What morality does the Old Testament teach? And is it 'right'? ; 7. Who wrote the Old Testament? First attempts at a scientific reading ; 8. So; title: who did write the Old Testament? ; 9. Conclusion: if there is no single message in the Old Testament, what are its messages?); title: Part two: The New Testament (1. The historical context: the world Jesus was born into (587 BC; title: 1 AD) ; 2. The structure and purpose of the New Testament: the mission statement for Christians ; 3. The New Testament as history: is the story true? ; 4. The New Tesatment as morality: what morality (and what theology) does the New Testament teach? ; 5. The historical context (continued): the world of the 1st century AD, the world in which Jesus lived (4 BC to the early 30s AD) and the New Testament was written ; 6. So; title: who wrote the New Testament? ; 7. Who did Jesus think he was? ; 8. The New Testament: conclusion); title: Part three: A vision of freedom (1. Is there a different way to read the Bible? ; 2. Three Bible passages: a literary appreciation ; 3. The sum of the parts: reading the Bible as a unity); title: Appendix 1: Books of the Old Testament; title: Aoppendix 2: Books of the New Testament)