Making Sense of Scripture

Adam Hamilton’s conclusions in Making Sense of the Bible are predictable.

Is the creation story true? Yes, but the truth is theological not scientific. Was there really a flood and did Noah really save animals in an ark? Probably not; but the flood story is still true, since it teaches us some essential things about God. The God of the Bible was violent, but the Bible is a human book and so it reflects the “understanding and experience of God” of human beings “shaped by their culture, their theological assumptions, and the time in which they lived” (213). Does the Bible condemn same-sex sex? Hamilton used to think so, but deeper grappling with the text, and (once again) appreciating “the Bible’s humanity,” he has concluded otherwise (278).

It’s not clear how the Bible teaches the lessons Hamilton says it teaches. He doesn’t believe that the flood happened as described in the text, but he can isolate God’s grief over human sin and tell us that the Bible is true on that point. He cites 1 Corinthians 10 more than once, but he doesn’t believe Paul’s claim that “these things happened to them.” How can records of events that never happened teach us about how God operates in the world? What are we to say about a God who grieves over human evil but does we-know-not-what to rectify it? I’ll take a God who grieves and then opens the heavens to wipe His world clean, thank you.

Hamilton knows that the biblical writers’ assumptions and culture shaped their understanding. He knows that he himself is shaped by his culture too, but that latter insight plays little active role in his reading. He is reluctant questions the contemporary scientific, moral, or historical consensus, never quite allowing the Bible to penetrate his armor of assumptions.

What interests me more than the book are the endorsements. Shane Claiborne claims that Hamilton “refuses cliche answers,” but in fact that’s all Hamilton offers. They aren’t the Evangelical cliches that Claiborne seems to have in mind, but in many churches they have been cliches for well over a century. The book is also endorsed by Jim Wallis and Brian McLaren.

All of which makes one wonder, not for the first time, where Evangelicals are heading with regard to Scripture.