WHY TRUST THE BIBLE?
Answers to 10 tough questions
By Amy Orr-Ewing. IVP. 128 pages
ISBN 0 85111 993 9
In our most recent Christianity Explored group at church questions about the reliability of the Bible were prominent. This book does an excellent job of answering the kinds of questions about the Bible which bother contemporary seekers.
Amy Orr-Ewing is an Australian Oxford graduate who works for the Zacharias Trust and is married to an Anglican vicar. Her book takes on postmodernism as the first two chapters address the questions, ‘Isn’t it all a matter of interpretation?’ and ‘Can we know anything about history?’ It then goes on to cover old ground which stalwarts like F.F. Bruce dealt with so clearly in the past concerning the reliability of the manuscripts and the canon of Scripture. There is a fine chapter on other holy books which mostly is given to analysing the Qur’an and comparing it with the Bible. Here the authoress brings to light the question about the stability of the text which has been raised by the discovery of ancient Qur’anic manuscripts in Yemen which differ from the received text. She then goes on to do a fine job in addressing questions about the perceptions that the Bible seems to endorse war and to be way out of date on sexual ethics.
However, I did detect a sleight of hand. While arguing that the Bible is not culturally conditioned in standing against homosexual practice, she does see it as culturally conditioned in the different roles it gives to men and women in the church and the family. The words ‘cake’, ‘having’ and ‘eating it’ came to mind here. But, apart from this one weakness, I found the book well researched, well argued and easy to read. It does not cover every angle about the Bible’s reliability, but then no one book could. I like the book and hope to get others to read it.
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What would you think if you received a letter from your church leaders that read like this? ‘Are church …