The Bible is not Meant to be Read

I have been told that the Bible is boring. Maybe it is. I have a difficult time seeing how a book that is thousands of years old is not boring. Telling the story of how I brush my teeth is boring, it is why no one writes down all their teeth brushing experiences. Perhaps the Bible is boring because we are no longer surprised by the Bible.

We know about Adam blaming Eve, Samson’s flowing locks and strength,  Jonah’s resentment, Jacob’s sneakiness, Esther's courage, Peter's denial, Paul's conversion. We just are not surprised when Easter is celebrated.

Allow me to let you in on a little secret that might sound a little crazy and even hyperbole, but it is something that changed my life. Here it is:

If you are reading the bible, you are doing it wrong. The bible is not meant to be read.

The bible is boring when you read it. We treat it like a movie that we have seen countless times. We think of the bible as like another media source and so it is something we read, something we consume, like any other book or movie. When we read it once we feel like we do after we watch a movie, we tell everyone that we have seen that. I is and have no deep desire to see it again.

You are not supposed to read the Bible, the Bible is supposed to read you.

It is collection of writings that we open ourselves up to in order to be convinced and shaped or formed. It is a living book that invites us to see that blaming another is not limited to Adam, that we too harbor resentment, that you and I manipulate others for our benefit, that Esther's courage is our courage and that we are Peter and we are Paul. These are not characters locked in the past or on a page. These are the stories of our lives today.

When we read the Bible, we are not surprised because we already know the ending. However, when we allow the Bible to read us, the surprises are never ending.

Retributive Justice is not Restorative Justice

I was reminded in Richard Rohr's book Breathing Underwater: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps there is a difference between retributive and restorative justice. Retributive justice is something that most of us most of the time think of when we think of "justice". It looks something like this:

sin -- punishment -- repentance -- transformation 

We see this pattern in the American Justice system. There is a crime and then there is a punishment (prison) and we will let you out if you show remorse (repentance) and once one has "paid their debt" or "served their time" we hope they are transformed. While this system may bring about a sense of satisfaction to those who have been wronged, it does not lead to reconciliation or wholeness. This is why we see so many repeat offenders in the system. On some level we know this pattern does not work because we have become suspicious of anyone in prison who has "found Jesus". Even if the offender has been transformed, the offended and society wit large has not. 

Restorative Justice looks a bit different and it is the way God deals with creation:

sin -- unconditional love -- transformation -- repentance 

Notice that with every infraction, the response from God is always grace and love - not punishment as we often were told and/or treat one another. If you are given grace after an infraction, then there is a chance for transformation. It is not guaranteed that love will transform a person in just an instant. The person has to receive that grace/love and see that it really is grace and love - not a trap for manipulation. If transformation happens, then there is repentance. The person realizes that they cannot go back to being the way they were and they live a new life. 

This may be why, in part, the musical Les Miserables has had such staying power. One of the main characters was caught stealing from a priest and when the police apprehend the thief, the priest does not press charges and thus send the thief back to prison, but instead says, that there was no way the man could have stolen the silver because the silver did not belong to the priest. Additionally, the priest said, "you left in such a hurry that you forgot these candlesticks." The priest was working for restoration while the police were working for retribution. And it was the restorative work of the priest that changed Jean Valjean forever. 

Read the Bible as Fiction. Please.

I have always wondered why when I ask people to tell me what the most important or formative books they have read in their lives, nine times out of ten a person says it was a fictional story. For instance, when Goodreads users what are the most influential books they have read, fiction is all over the place.

The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human is a fantastic book and it is the first source that I have encountered that addresses why fiction is more influential on people than non-fiction. 

Here is a short summary of one of the arguments to the power of fiction:

"Green and Brock’s research shows that the more absorbed readers are in a story, the more the story changes them. Fiction readers who reported a high level of absorption tended to have their beliefs changed in a more “story-consistent” way than those who were less absorbed. Highly absorbed readers also detected significantly fewer “false notes” in stories—inaccuracies, infelicities—than less transported readers. Importantly, it is not just that highly absorbed readers detected the false notes and didn’t care about them (as when we watch a pleasurably idiotic action film); these readers were unable to detect the false notes in the first place."

The author goes on to say:

"And in this there is an important lesson about the molding power of story. When we read non fiction, we read with our shields up. We are critical and skeptical. But when we are absorbed in a story, we drop our intellectual guard. We are moved emotionally, and this seems to leave us defenseless."

The Church teaches that the Bible is Truth that you can shape your life around. Which gives the impression that the Bible should be read as first and foremost a historical document that is trying to convince the reader. 

The Bible, on the whole, is a collection of writings that are not trying to convince people's minds but trying to shape people's hearts. And the more we read the Bible like it is all non fiction the more we read "with our shields" up to the point that we are cynical and discount the Bible in what it is really trying to do. 

No one reads Frankenstein with their cynical shields up. Rather, we read and it shapes our hearts to consider the ethical dilemmas Shelley is trying to raise.

The Bible is a great collection of books. Many of these books are fiction and others are "based on a true story" sort of non fiction. But either way, can we get back to a point where the Church teaches Christians to read the Bible as non fiction and not be threatened by the Bible losing credibility or authority? 

Put it another way, can the Church get away from trying to convince people's minds and get back to Jesus' desire to shape our hearts*?

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*Ever wonder why Jesus used fictitious parables rather than non fiction tales?