Keith Ward introduces this volume on the world's greatest ever bestseller by suggesting that the Bible is neither a book dictated by God, as some believe, nor just a set of out-dated taboos and politically slanted histories, as those at the opposite extreme maintain. Rather, it is a very mixed set of documents, by many different writers, from many different times, which records the struggle of many people in one particular religious tradition to respond to their discernments of a transcendent spiritual power.

Keith Ward

Cover

About the author

Title page

Copyright

Introduction

Part1 The nature of biblical inspiration

1. The Bible as a spiritual text

2. Is the Bible inerrant?

3. Can we believe in biblical miracles?

4. Diversity in the Bible

5. What does inspiration mean?

Part2 The old testament

6. Reading the Old Testament

7. The prophets

8. Religious beliefs in the ancient world

9. Prophetic monotheism

10. Are there immoral rules in the Old Testament?

Part3 Biblical metaphors and christian doctrines

11. Metaphor in the Bible

12. Metaphors of creation

13. Metaphors of incarnation

14. Metaphors of atonement

15. Metaphors of salvation

Part4 The new testament

16. The positive gospel of unlimited divine love

17. Metaphors of the kingdom of God

18. The kingdom: a case study

Part5 The development of ideas in the bible

19. The development of biblical ideas of God and morality

20. New Testament developments of biblical ideas

21. The development of biblical ideas of the afterlife

22. A case study in development: retributive and restorative justice

23. Development beyond the Bible: the cosmic story to which the Bible points

Conclusion: the Bible as the word of God

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Ward, Keith

Keith Ward introduces this volume on the world's greatest ever bestseller by suggesting that the Bible is neither a book dictated by God, as some believe, nor just a set of out-dated taboos and politically slanted histories, as those at the opposite extreme would have it.

Keith Ward introduces this volume on the world's greatest ever bestseller by suggesting that the Bible is neither a book dictated by God, as some believe, nor just a set of out-dated taboos and politically slanted histories, as those at the opposite extreme would maintain. Rather, it is a very mixed set of documents, by many different writers, from many different times, which records the struggle of many people in one particular religious tradition to respond to their discernments of a transcendent spiritual power. What makes the Bible distinctive among other religious books is the dominant image of transendence, of spirituality, that slowly develops in its pages. This is the image of a power that helps humans to seek a moral goal in history even when such a thing would seem impossible to achieve - were it not for the power of grace. The bible, in short, is a spiritual text.

The Good Book Stall

If you, like me, feel alienated from any kind of fundamentalism, Christian or other, you may find this book speaks to you. Keith Ward continues the broadside against Fundamentalism that he discharged in his earlier book What the Bible Really Teaches (2004). He argues that no interpretation of the Bible can claim to be the ‘correct’ one, neither the fundamentalist one nor even his own.  
‘Metaphor’ is a key notion in this book, illustrated with reference to creation, the divine sonship of Jesus, atonement, salvation and the kingdom. Among Ward’s ‘rules’ for reading metaphors are that (i) the statements are not literally true, and (ii) they communicate in an indirect, sometimes cryptic way, open to various interpretations.   
This means there is great diversity in the Bible. There is also development in many of its ideas. Parts of it are “unduly vindictive and judgmental, when judged in the light of Jesus’ teaching.” Even parts of the New Testament get things wrong. Ward takes morality, the afterlife and justice as examples of this development, devoting one stirring chapter to a ‘Case Study on Retributive and Restorative Justice’. He also coins the memorable phrase, “The positive Gospel of unlimited divine love” adding, “Perhaps the Christian message should be: never adopt a judgmental or vindictive attitude”.  
Ward makes it clear that the Bible is not an inerrant book dictated by God, containing wholly accurate accounts of human history and sets of moral instructions. That doesn’t stop him concluding that God can use its very diverse documents, “difficult but rewarding to interpret” as they are, to “evoke a sense of divine presence and purpose, and lead its hearers into a closer conscious relationship with the divine mind and heart of Being”, and that it is, “in a carefully qualified sense”, the word of God.   
Read this book! No need to fear or denigrate the work of biblical scholars again!

The Word of God

The Bible After Modern Scholarship

The Word of God?

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