The battle over the Bible is increasingly polarized between the absolutism of inerrantists who claim to speak for all Christians and the scorn of secularists who find easy targets for ridicule. With an engaging combination of honesty, goodwill, and wit, Thom Stark offers a vital third way. He explodes the “hermeneutics of convenience” of self-styled inerrantists, examines some of the most objectionable aspects of the Bible, and refuses throughout to sacrifice moral decency on the altar of inerrantist dogma—which is, after all, as much a human construction as the biblical criticism that inerrantists deride. This is must reading for Christians who have agonized over their own private doubts about Scripture—and for others who have given up hope that evangelical Christians can practice intelligent, moral interpretation of the Bible.

Dr. Neil Elliott
Adjunct Instructor
United Theological Seminary
Author of Liberating Paul