The Bible : a biography

“Scripture was not really a text but an activity, a spiritual process that introduced thousands of people to transcendence.” – from the epilogue

Armstrong weaves together the composition of and response to the Bible as a coherent narrative, which makes for an easy read but creates some problems. It is an interpretation, with a certain amount of purely personal opinion thrown in. I think it would be a mistake to take it as a sole source without others to compare it to, for much is presented that is surely speculation without noting it as such (especially in the earlier periods – there is no way to tell with certainty when, where, and for whom the Gospels were written, for example, but theories are given as facts).

The overarching thesis is that rather than an immutable object, the Bible has always been a process that reveals much about the soul state of those who engage in interaction with it. The mode has veered from outwardly militant to inward and mystical, with many variations in between. In our time, we've degenerated into a rigid fundamentalism that threatens to destroy the living Word, opposed by a sterile secularism that threatens to destroy the entire world and all that lives upon it. Armstrong pleads for a new hermeneutics that will read the Bible as a gloss on the Golden Rule (an ancient idea), rather than using it as an excuse to perpetuate further inhumanity and cruelty in the world. I agree, but what I think is missing is any sense that there could be actual spiritual experience that is a valid source of insight, and into which the Bible (and other sacred texts) offer a path of knowledge, not just a variety of personal opinions.

I appreciated all the information on the history of Judaism, of which I am woefully ignorant and need to learn more, and the succinct explanation of the origins of Christian fundamentalism. This turned more toxic after it was attacked in the early twentieth century, leading to the current horrible marriage with conservative politics. Also good to have some coverage of the insane, ethically corrupt but popular and dangerous Rapture theology and its literalist interpretations.

Altogether we need to recover from literalism, but a weak pluralism is not the answer. Rather we need to rise to real experience of the true human core, which will be a spiritual experience, because the human being is spirit – and in which we will find differences overcome, because in our essence we are one, even as we are all different and unique. This is the “reading process” we need to learn and for which sacred texts are meant to prepare us.