Painful to listen to

I’m going to finish listening because the content is good but the narrator/author is struggling and very uneasy. This book has just been released on audible, I strongly encourage the author/audible to think about hiring a professional reader for this important content to be shared with members. Blessings

7 people found this helpful

Much needed book

Dan Kimball is a theologian, critical thinker, cultural observer, and teacher as well as an excellent author.
With humility and insight Dan addresses common objection to some of the Bible’s most difficult texts. How (Not) to Read the Bible also provides skills and tools to help the reader understand the totality of the biblical story. And how to properly read and understand the scriptures.

I felt like Dan “gave me a fish” when he unpacked specific difficult passages and concepts. But he also “taught me to fish” so that I can better study, understand, and apply scripture on my own.

1 person found this helpful

Love this - gets you out of the Bible rabbit-holes

I can't tell you how much I love this book! It's just what I needed. I happened to be in the car, switched the radio channel and landed on a Christian station and the host was interviewing Dan Kimball. I immediately went online and bought this audiobook.

This book put me and everyone I know into our places: Don't take what you read in the Bible EXACTLY at face value: you must know THE CONTEXT for which books were written. I feel now I can never go back to any old habits of cherry-picking verses or even chapters from the Bible and making a quick assumption/perspective on a topic/issue without first truly vetting the CONTEXT. Examples would be: who it was written for, who the author was, when it was written and what was God's real purpose for breathing into the hearts/minds of authors.

This should be required reading for any believer. I will be having my college daughter and high school son listen as well. I even told my husband he should consider doing this as a study for his Men's group. We all need to be enlightened on this topic.

Sometimes we all lose the big-picture of God's word. For me, this brought the entire Bible together and gave me such a better understanding from a high-level view. And...I had many ah-ha moments. Thank you Dan Kimball for your work on this.

1 person found this helpful

Great content. Horrible Narration

I love the content of this book. I would give copies of it to someone struggling with the difficult passages of the Bible.
The advice about never reading a Bible verse in isolation is worth the whole thing. Highly recommend this book.
That being said ..the narration is painful to the point of making it a chore to finish the book. It says the author narrated it. They might want to reconsider that choice. The reading is awkward in it's timing and tone. At times I thought so was listening to a poor quality computer reading.
Again, nothing against the content. But beware the narration.

Desperately needed and endlessly helpful

Dan Kimball does a wonderful job of outlining and explaining how people (whether they’re believers or not) read the Bible in counter-productive and even harmful ways. He not only gives the principles for how to handle the Bible more responsibly and accurately, but he also provides examples of how verses can be taken out of context for disturbing and disastrous results. What I found very refreshing is that he gave answers to most of the examples he listed, rather than just bringing up problematic verses and leaving us to wonder how to apply the principles.

My only (and very slight) critique would be on the reading style; at times it could feel more wooden than conversational, and it was mildly distracting at times. I’m just including this for feedback’s sake.

Overall, as a Christian and a lover of the Bible, this book gave me so much insight into the potentially distressing parts of Scripture, how they can be responsibly addressed, and how we should address people with questions and doubts with compassion and empathy. I wholeheartedly recommend checking this out for yourself.

Still solidly Evangelical - a mixed blessing

Dan Kimball clearly loves people more than dogma. that is the strength of this book. I am glad he narrated his own book because it lets that caring nature shine through. However, though he may be exploring new territory for many in the Evangelical world he does not escape its orbit. . periodically throughout the book Kimball offers excellent advice for healthy reading and interpretation of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. But for whatever reason, he keeps one foot touching base so critical evangelicals might not throw him out. For example, the offers the advice to "never read a Bible verse." he encourages us to always consider the context both in the text and the culture around the text. but then for the rest of the book he makes conservative Evangelical points by quoting single verses. I would recommend this book to conservative Christians who are beginning to deconstruct fundamentalist teaching. I would not give this book to intellectually astute culturally aware people offended by the primitive parts of the Bible.

Concise and complete, yet humble

Dan Kimball does a great job explaining his position on a number of difficult passages in scripture. His non-actor reading gives it credibility and yet it doesn’t feel like an act or sermon. Worth a read/listen.

Very informative book! A must read!

I really enjoyed this book. I learned a lot and feel better prepared to discuss crazy sounding bible verses now! I think every Christian should read this!

Great for studying the bible

I really enjoyed this book. I heard about it from the Bible Project Podcast. It is super insightful, and gives a clear explanation to many difficult topics found in the Bible. It's worth the read.

A must read for Christians!

Highly recommend this book to believers and non believers. Its great for the youth too about to start college (typically when they start to question what they believe in.) There’s a lot of weird verses in the Bible and this gives you the know how of how to approach those verse.