Julia M. OBrien

Getting Started

The project will make the most sense if you read everything in this "Gettting Started" section first. After that, the individual stories can be read in any order.

Religious and secular folks alike tend to treat the Bible as an instruction book. They may disagree about whether to follow biblical instructions, but they share the assumption that the Bible’s value depends on how helpful or practical its guidelines for belief and behavior really are.

I find this situation sad, maybe even tragic. Because the Bible has a lot more to offer than rules. Its narratives offer nuanced insight into the human experience.

Faith communities reinforce this instructional approach to the Bible, explicitly and implicitly. Protestants speak of the Bible as “the only rule of faith and practice” and insist on “the authority of the Bible.” Jews learn to turn the pages of Torah over and over again, “for all is contained therein.” Religious education for children and adults trains them to ask what the Bible teaches, how it “applies” to modern life. Volumes line the self-improvement and religion sections of bookstores spelling out biblical guidelines for disciplining children, sexual relations, proper diet, dealing with anger—and more.

Having breathed the same air as their religious neighbors, secular writers evaluate the Bible on the merits of its rules. In The Year of Living Biblically, A. J. Jacobs undertakes a year-long project to follow every single instruction of the Bible--not only the Ten Commandments but also as much of Leviticus as possible.

Along the way, he finds more value in biblical ways of life that he expected, but not enough to win him over to living biblically for another year, much less a lifetime. Other best-sellers rate the Bible’s instructional value more negatively, claiming that it skews people’s understanding of the origins of the planet and the nature of human sexuality.

Despite their differences, all judge the Bible according to its plan for living. If the Book produces good behavior and accurate thinking, it’s worth keeping. If not, then it stands in the way of human progress.

Anyone who’s read a biblical genealogy, though, or the story of Joshua’s slaughter of the Canaanites knows the difficulty of finding wholesome guidelines in every part of the Bible. And anyone who’s ever discussed a biblical story with someone else knows that readers rarely agree on what a story like The Prodigal Son “really” teaches. It’s no wonder that many people need a New Year’s resolution to make themselves read the Bible and that many come to the often private conclusion that the Bible has nothing to offer a thoughtful contemporary adult.

It’s my contention that most people’s problems with the Bible aren’t really with the Bible but rather with what they assume they are supposed to do with what they read. While of course the Bible does offer some explicit instructions, most of it (especially the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament) is narrative and poetry. Reading a story or a poem only for its moral bottom-line not only leads to odd doctrine but also overlooks what stories and poems do best: incite the imagination and let readers lose (and find) themselves within the worlds they create. Stories have power, not only to entertain but also to confront us with ourselves.

Most people can testify to having seen their own lives differently because of a well-told tale. The story we read never remains on the page. It also plays itself out inside and around us. And we play out the dynamics of our lives in the process of making sense of someone else’s story.

The stories of the Bible can work like this. They can be read like novels—stories that invite reflection, imagination, and discussion. Reading the Bible as literature doesn’t demote a sacred text to “just literature.” Rather, it releases the Bible from the restrictive assumptions that have choked all the joy out of reading it.

It’s my contention that the Bible can be just as engaging as any novel on the best-seller list—and often more engaging. Its stories are complex, nuanced, and come with the seal of approval of countless generations of readers. The Bible may belong in church, but it also belongs in book clubs and reading groups. It belongs wherever individuals and groups are interested in engaging the questions that literature raises about being human. What makes people tick? Do people change? Which is more important, love or money? How does tracing the contours of a character’s life help me cope with my own?