A Most Peculiar Book: The Inherent Strangeness of the Bible

Based on her ongoing research on Christianity in general as well the contradictions that she discovered while reading the Bible as a child and, later, as an adult, this latest work by Swenson (Virginia Commonwealth Univ.; Bible Babel) maintains that the Bible is a complex book that cannot be understood in a simple or literal manner. Her book primarily concerns hermeneutics, the methods of interpreting the Bible. She shows that the Bible is comprised of many books, compiled for more than a thousand years, and that it provides multiple and sometimes inconsistent perspectives. The four sections of the book are “A Book Like No Other,” “Beings Odd and Otherwise,” “Troubling Texts,” and “But the Bible Says.” Swenson states that by reading the Bible in a personal, intelligent, and curious way, questioning and even arguing with it, readers will discover new insights and gain a greater understanding of it, even with all of its inconsistencies. The author writes this insightful and instructive book for the believer, the unbeliever, and the ones in between, since they all might have interest in its methods of interpretation.