Brennan Flentge
TL;DR
— Someone finally read the Bible without trying to rescue it from itself.
— Ideal reading conditions: recently deconstructed, still processing.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I came to God: An Anatomy fairly fresh off learning that “non-denominational” was just charismatic Pentecostal evangelical in a Hillsong hoodie. Great time to read a book about God’s genitals.
Just a warning for religious / believing people, some parts of this are kind of heavy to sit with if you are learning about it for the first time / you have had zero exposure to secular biblical scholarship.
The thesis is not complicated. The God in the Bible has a body. Feet. Hands. A face. Genitals. A smell. Dr. Stavrakopoulou, a professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Religion who clearly enjoys her job, works through it anatomically. Chapter by chapter. Feet to head.
She is not trying to destroy anything. She is simply pointing at the text and declining to look the other away. Which is more than I can say for thirty years of Sunday sermons.
The God I was handed was abstract, invisible, philosophically sanitized. That editing job started about two thousand years ago and nobody within my faith tradition mentioned it.
What gets me is how boring her case is. She is not speculating. She is translating. The uncomfortable parts were always there, and there's a long history of deciding words don't mean words and they are just metaphors.
I listened to the audiobook while reading along. (Yes, both at once, I need the training wheels.) Her writing is scholarly, but alive. She reads the audiobook herself - her voice gives the book even more character. Sounds like someone constitutionally incapable of pretending things are simpler than they are. After years of “teachers” doing the opposite, this book was eye-opening.
Five stars. Not a faith-killer. More like a very well-researched autopsy.
Originally posted at www.goodreads.com.
TL;DR
— Someone finally read the Bible without trying to rescue it from itself.
— Ideal reading conditions: recently deconstructed, still processing.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I came to God: An Anatomy fairly fresh off learning that “non-denominational” was just charismatic Pentecostal evangelical in a Hillsong hoodie. Great time to read a book about God’s genitals.
Just a warning for religious / believing people, some parts of this are kind of heavy to sit with if you are learning about it for the first time / you have had zero exposure to secular biblical scholarship.
The thesis is not complicated. The God in the Bible has a body. Feet. Hands. A face. Genitals. A smell. Dr. Stavrakopoulou, a professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Religion who clearly enjoys her job, works through it anatomically. Chapter by chapter. Feet to head.
She is not trying to destroy anything. She is simply pointing at the text and declining to look the other away. Which is more than I can say for thirty years of Sunday sermons.
The God I was handed was abstract, invisible, philosophically sanitized. That editing job started about two thousand years ago and nobody within my faith tradition mentioned it.
What gets me is how boring her case is. She is not speculating. She is translating. The uncomfortable parts were always there, and there's a long history of deciding words don't mean words and they are just metaphors.
I listened to the audiobook while reading along. (Yes, both at once, I need the training wheels.) Her writing is scholarly, but alive. She reads the audiobook herself - her voice gives the book even more character. Sounds like someone constitutionally incapable of pretending things are simpler than they are. After years of “teachers” doing the opposite, this book was eye-opening.
Five stars. Not a faith-killer. More like a very well-researched autopsy.
Originally posted at www.goodreads.com.