What Is the Bible? (Part 1)

Grappling with a simple - yet nuanced - question

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

(An eight-minute read.)

When people hear the word “Bible,” I’m sure it elicits many varied responses and emotions.

I know it does for me.

For some, the word might be triggering, conjuring up images of old, white, male evangelists, thumping their Bibles and claiming to know exactly what God thinks (and trying to coerce others to align with it accordingly).

For others, it may create feelings of confusion, thinking about the seeming contradictions and inconsistencies in the Bible.

Then there are plenty of others for whom the Bible has been a source of great comfort and encouragement.

For my doctoral research, I just finished a year of studying the history of American Unitarianism, examining their anti-creedal inclinations. I learned a lot.

One of the things that challenged my thinking perhaps the most was the way in which Unitarianism rather quickly moved away from any sort of biblical moorings. While the earliest Unitarian thinkers were pretty committed to relating to the Bible as a source—indeed, the primary source—of communication from God, within a few decades, the movement began questioning the reliability of the Bible.

One of the loudest voices was Theodore Parker, who essentially divorced his ethical vision from Scripture, repeatedly pointing to the alleged errors and inconsistencies of the Bible, and insisting that people could instead trust their intuition to direct them in their ethical journey.

As I read assault after assault coming from Parker, I couldn’t help but wonder how I related to his attack on the Bible, and to what degree his reflections are worth processing on a personal level.

This is also a relevant question in the light of my own ministry endeavors, centered as they are in the midst of America’s most secular region (and, by some measures, the most post-Christian city), as I interact with and relate to people who are very skeptical about religion and suspicious of anyone who is potentially a “Bible-thumper.”

At the same time, as I’ve probably shared many times before, I myself feel somewhat “triggered” by Christians who use a sort of “Fundamentalist” approach to the Bible, reading and applying it in ways that downplay or ignore its historical or literary context, and claim that it was verbally dictated by God.

This is the sort of “God said it, I believe it, that settles it” mentality, frequently possessed by people who then use the Bible as a source of aggression towards and control of others.

So all this has left me wondering: what even is the Bible?

Is it a divinely inspired book by a single divine author, meant to govern and dictate every corner of one’s life?

Is it simply a collection of ancient books written by human authors who had varying experiences and perspectives—from which we can glean some wisdom (and perhaps a little inspiration)?

Is it both?

Something in between?

Neither?

What I want to do is share a few reflections on where I currently am on my thinking about what the Bible is.

In this, I’m going to tackle the question in multiple parts (which I don’t typically do).

First, I want to address what the Bible might be ontologically (that is, what, exactly, it is). Then, after that, I want to address how we might relate to it hermeneutically (that is, how we might approach it interpretively).

In so doing, I hope to challenge and inspire fellow travelers of the Jesus-way, perhaps offering a slightly different take on the question than they may be used to.

I also hope to give my readers who aren’t Jesus-followers some food for thought, explaining the Bible in a way that may be different from what they’ve encountered before.

In neither case am I claiming originality or profundity. Neither am I claiming to be the final word—as though I have it all figured out.

This is simply a “working theory” of what the Bible is, reflecting my current thinking on how I relate to it.

And I could be completely wrong about it. And some may conclude that I’m a heretic of the highest order—while others may think I’m the most naïve person on the planet.

So, again, what is the Bible?

The ontological question

As I understand it, the Bible is, for starters, a collection of writings, composed over hundreds of years, by many different human authors. It covers a number of different genres—from history to poetry to law, and everything in between—and reflects the different personalities, concerns, styles, and historical contexts of its various human authors.

Some people would also propose that the Bible contains multiple theologies of its various authors, maintaining that there’s a wide diversity of perspectives on its numerous religious and theological claims, some of which were even contradictory to one another.

Thus, one author—James, say—may have insisted that people were saved by “works,” while another author—Paul, say—proposed that people were saved by “grace.”

I don’t necessarily want to jump down this rabbit hole too far, but I will just briefly say these two things on this subtopic: first, I don’t have a huge problem with saying that the Bible does contain various theologies, since I don’t necessarily believe that every author perceived God exactly the same way. Nor do I necessarily believe, based on my view of revelation and inspiration (which I’ll address below), it’s absolutely necessary that God had to reveal himself the same way to every person, nor inspire them with the exact same understanding of himself.

I’m also open to the idea that inspiration may allow for a certain level of “development” in the biblical authors’ thinking, such that someone like Jeremiah or Peter, for example, may have had a more mature understanding of God and his ways than another author who lived hundreds of years before them.

With that being said, I would just want to nuance this point by proposing that while there may be a diversity of theologies to some extent in the Bible, those theologies are more complementary than they are contradictory.

Second, I partly say this because, whatever else one might say about the theological diversity of the various biblical authors, it seems to me that they all hailed from a single religious community—that is, a community which believed there was a single God (whom they referred to as YHWH) who was working in and through the people of Israel to accomplish his redemptive purposes in the world.

Thus, in short, I believe the Bible is, if nothing else, a collection of writings that, composed over hundreds of years, were written by numerous human authors, reflecting the ways they understood themselves to be participating in YHWH’s redemption project.

Of course, the natural question then is: did God have anything to do with this?

Did God inspire the writers of the Bible?

And, if so, what does that even mean or how did it work?

First, let me say something about “God.”

It will probably surprise no one reading this that I believe in the existence of God—and a God who has distinct personhood (in other words: a God who exists apart from the universe, who has consciousness, intellect, will, and relationality—and is thus not simply an impersonal “force,” or the universe itself).

I’m also committed to the idea—indeed, my sanity partly depends on believing—that if there really is a God, then this God must be defined by love.

I won’t give all the reasons for this position, but I’ll just say that if there is in fact a God, and this God isn’t defined by love, then it seems that we’re all in a lot of trouble.

So, returning to the question at hand (about whether this God has anything to do with the Bible), I’ll preliminarily propose this: if there is a God, and if this God has personhood, and if this God with personhood is defined by love, then it stands to reason—at least in my very simple brain—that this personal God of love would necessarily want to and would seek to communicate with his creatures.

That is, after all, the nature of love.

Love communicates.

It almost can’t help itself and wants to communicate with the objects of its love as a way of relational connection (I have a whole box full of “love letters” from my wife to support this claim).

I know, of course, that there are a lot of assumptions in that proposal. My argument is carrying a lot of freight—some of which people may be reluctant to accept.

But I wonder if you might be willing to just hear me out before completely rejecting my perspective?

If so, look for my next installment on this topic in your inbox next week.

But in summary, this is what I’m proposing thus far: first, the Bible is a collection of writings that were composed over hundreds of years and written by numerous human authors, reflecting the ways they understood themselves to be participating in God’s redemption project.

Second, I believe there is a personal God who is defined by love. And love, by its very nature, communicates.

Now, as I’m sure you can anticipate, next week I’ll explain why it is that I think this God of love has communicated through this thing we call “the Bible.”

To read Part 2, click here.

To Read Part 3, click here.

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Shawn is a pastor in Portland, Maine, whose life, ministry, and writing focus on incarnational expressions of faith. The author of four books and a columnist for Adventist Review, he is also a DPhil (PhD) candidate at the University of Oxford, focusing on nineteenth-century American Christianity. You can follow him on Instagram, and listen to his podcast Mission Lab.