The Bible Through Time and Space

To understand how Scripture has shaped our world, one certainly has to consider how people read, preach, teach, and strive to obey it. But to fully appreciate the Bible’s indelible imprint upon human history, there are other layers that need exploring.

Bruce Gordon, a historian of the Reformation era, looks at Scripture’s earthly journey from a multitude of angles in his new book, The Bible: A Global History. In it, we see not only how believers across generations study and interpret God’s Word, but also how they experience it with the whole of their being.

Reviewing the book for the September/October issue of CT is David W. Kling, a religious studies professor at the University of Miami and the author of The Bible in History: How the Texts Have Shaped the Times.

“Gordon’s substantial book is a welcome first,” writes Kling. “Much contemporary scholarship on the Bible’s history has focused on questions of how it came into existence and whether we can trust its historical claims.

“To be sure, Gordon engages these issues. But they are secondary concerns in a narrative emphasizing how the Bible was produced, copied, adorned, illustrated, memorized, printed, marketed, commodified, distributed, annotated, translated, sung, and interpreted across the ages.

“Gordon’s compelling, sensitive, accessible, and balanced work is a Christian people’s history of the Bible through time and space. It’s a story of how Christians have lived in and through the text in countless ways, both ‘positively and negatively,’ through ‘all the human senses.’

“Evangelicals tend to approach the Bible as mainly a devotional book, something to be read and understood for the sake of furthering spiritual growth. Gordon’s history by no means discounts this approach. It demonstrates, though, that throughout most of Christian history, the Bible was heard, performed, or seen, not read.

“Reading Gordon’s work, three major themes come to the forefront: We see believers treating the Bible as an object of devotion. We see them translating the Bible into different languages, idioms, and cultural contexts. And we see them engaging with the Bible as a channel of personal communication from God.”

Christian Parenting in a Permissive Age

Every parent eventually comes to terms with the fact that their children aren’t perfect little cherubs. If only reluctantly, Amber and I find ourselves entertaining the once-heretical notion that our toddler son, Ezra, might not have escaped the curse of Original Sin after all. Who knew that beneath that heart-melting smile lurks the soul of a master manipulator and a devious, defiant, adorable little snot?

Admitting the truth, of course, is only half the battle. Next comes the dilemma of figuring out how to keep those little devils in check and set them on the right road. Here, Christians parents walk the same tightrope as their secular peers, seeking the right balance of firmness and flexibility.

In their book The Flourishing Family: A Jesus-Centered Guide to Parenting with Peace and Purpose, David and Amanda Erickson address Christians parents who want to avoid tyrannical extremes without slipping into a permissiveness that refuses to take sin seriously.

Writer, editor, and mom Tabitha McDuffee reviewed the book for CT.

“Many millennial parents who were raised with the misguided (and sometimes outright abusive) ‘wisdom’ of authors like [James] Dobson and [Michael and Debi Pearl] are understandably anxious not to repeat those patterns with their own children,” writes McDuffee. “Others, who had milder experiences under authoritarian forms of discipline and essentially ‘turned out fine,’ hope to continue that legacy as a hedge against the perceived flaccidity and permissiveness of gentle parenting. Still others have adopted modern parenting’s scripts of acceptance (‘it’s okay to be upset’) while clinging to the behavioral expectations they grew up with (‘but you need to stop pouting and tuck your lip back in’).

“But while The Flourishing Family arrives during a particular cultural moment, the Ericksons have avoided tethering their work to that moment. They use occasional sidebars to briefly respond to common objections—like ‘What about the fear of the Lord?’—while keeping their distance from larger controversies. And while they devote an entire chapter to the topic of spanking (and properly interpreting verses in Proverbs that refer to ‘the rod’), they emphasize a holistic vision for Christian parenting that is founded on Scripture and supported by modern neuroscience. The result is a book that, while timely, figures to stand the test of time as a resource for Christian parents.

“While the Ericksons set out to present a cohesive view of Christian parenting, I’m glad that the outcome is less a comprehensive manual than a facilitating guide—a starting point for deeper discussions and longer journeys into God’s heart for Christian families. This intention is evident in their use of storytelling to convey their experiences and convictions without being rigid or prescriptive.

“And the authors include helpful reflection questions at the end of each chapter. These are not an afterthought, as they are in too many books. Instead, they further invite readers to consider their goals and hopes for their children and to draw nearer to Christ as they seek to disciple them well.”

Matt Reynolds

Senior Editor, Books

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