We need to take the Bible seriously. That means taking seriously the context in which each book was written and the rich variety of literary forms in which it comes to us…
Sometimes it reads like the front-page account of an actual historic event. Sometimes it’s like reading… parable and poetry, story and song. Sometimes it feels like… good and evil struggling to win a victory. Sometimes Paul’s letters are like reading a [personal message to a particular group of people] while reading the prophets is… filled with fantastic images and mind-blowing metaphors. None of it reads like a scientific textbook or a self-help manual.
The grand sweep of the biblical story is the account of a life-changing experience with God that required the use of nearly every literary form to attempt to convey it.
When we take the Bible seriously in terms of the context in which it was written and the form in which it comes, we begin to discover what Paul meant when he said, “All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the person of God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 NRSV)
-- Adapted from James A. Harnish in “A Disciple’s Path: Deepening Your Relationship with Christ and the Church”
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