The Unquiet Grave of Metaphysics: Reading the Bible for the Love of God

Reading the Bible for the Love of God is not a book one might immediately associate with philosophic controversy. Indeed, it seems more the title that one would give to a devotional or short study guide. But that is exactly what it is not. Another thing it is not is a book that I would recommend.


The theme of the book seems inocuous enough; that it is not adequate to treat the Bible as the "Words of God", rather it should be treated as the "Word of God." This may seem a confusing statement, and trust me, it definitely gets more confusing, but initially I interpreted it as an attempt to guide us away from a "bibliolatry", where the individual words and statements of scripture are worshipped rather than the God who inspired it. To state it simply, if the Bible is a window on the mind of God, Bibliolatry focuses on the window to the exclusion of the light on the other side. Another name for it is legalism. If the book left it here, it would have functioned as a needed corrective, and all would be well. But this is not the case.

To illustrate, I will take as an example the story of Adam and Eve. The book initially discussed how we should be reading this story as God's message to us, talking about how we each are an Adam or an Eve, and of how his account mirrors the manner in which we each fall into sin. So far, so good. But the book takes a definite turn for the worse, for the author then proceeds to state that because of this application, it is therefore unnecessary to deal with the actual accound. According to him, if we wish to view it as complete myth, derived from Babylonian sources with only its moral structures altered, it is irrelevant to the purpose of the Bible. This is where his understanding of the Bible as the "Word" rather than "Words" of God comes in, for if treating it as the Words of God means ascribing some factual content to it's narrative, treating it as the Word of God means "what does it mean to me." Don't get me wrong. The message that the Bible speaks to each one of us individually is vital. But to reason from this to the irrelevance of its factual contents seems more than a little hasty. In fact, it seems a move based more on the prevailing spirit of the age rather than any logical sequence. I refer, of course, to the spirit of Postmodernism

Philosophers (at least current philosophers) generally divide human thought into three periods that correspond to how Truth is understood. In the Premodern period, both physics (the study of the natural world) and metaphysics (the study of the that which is above nature) were given footing. It seemed self-evident then that a heirarchical supernatural order must lie behind nature. During this time, Theology was regarded as the king of the sciences, for how could nature be understood unless the invisible reality on which it depended were understood as well. But then came the Enlightenment, and as it swept through Europe a new dream for mankind was established, the dream of a completely rational (read physical) explanation for everything. Thus, with the dethronement and death of metaphysics was the Modern age born.

The modernist experiment was a huge success in many ways, leading to great advances in science, technology, and medicine. But scientists have long known that the claims of modernism cannot in the end be entirely correct, for ever since Einstein replaced Newton, ever since quantum physics replaced determinism, the fact that the physical universe is not as explicable on its own terms as we wanted it to be has become increasingly, if grudginly accepted. Even at the popular level there is a sense that knowing that the How of things as revealed by Modernism cannot replace the desire to know Why. It was thus that the Postmodern era was born.

The Postmodern era is an era of confusion. It is an era where irrationality is accepted as the underlying state of things, an era where each man and woman, if he or she would find meaning in a meaningless cosmos, must create that meaning for themselves. To the postmodern, there is no ultimate truth. Physics has been seen to be ultimately incomplete, and metaphysics is long dead, therefore the universe is accepted to be in a state of purposeless flux in which rationality is in the mind of the beholder. That was a rather long diatribe to get to my point, but necessary if the true problem with this book is to be appreciated, for Reading the Bible for the Love of God takes this confusion for granted. Based on this as an underlying assumption, it offers the Bible as a means to find that personal Why and then leaves it there, ignoring the fact that the Bible claims to be so much more than that.

Indeed, the Bible claims to be more than just a story, it claims to be THE story. It is the story of the Triune God, the Uncreated One who stands beyond all time and space. It is the story of the Universe, the handiwork of that magnificent being. it is the story of humanity written large, our fall into darkness and our failed attempts to climb out of the pit on our own. It is the story of Christ the Son and his appalling act of sacrifice by the hands of his creatures, bearing of the darkness that was ours and rising again in glory. Yes, the Bible is a window not to be worshipped in its own right, but the One whose face shines through that clear pane is as real, or perhaps moreso, than the sun on a cloudless day. It his He who wrote the grand story of our universe, not us.

Ultimately, Reading the Bible for the Love of God is a victim of its desire to be relevant. It attempts to be meaningful to the postmodern individual, but ultimately misses everything else in the process. Such is often the result when one tries to meld the zeitgeist with that which avowedly stands against it. The simple fact is that the reports of the death of metaphysics were grossly exaggerated, and like that of Another, its tomb also stands empty.