Certainly not a light read but here is what I gleaned from it that will help me better understand the Bible and how I should approach it. I have learned to let the Bible be a book of its time and place m

Let me share my three biggest takeaways.

‘The Old Testament is not a treatise on Israel’s history for the sake of history but a document of self-definition and spiritual encouragement: “Do not forget where we have been. Do not forget who we are—the people of God.” What were the writers of the Old Testament trying to convey? This sentence highlights it for me. Thanks for this succinct summary.

“The defining moment for the New Testament writers remains the defining moment for Christians today. The Old Testament—including Genesis—is the church’s theological self-defining document recast in light of the appearance of God’s Son.” Now that Jesus has entered the scene the question shifts to who are we and who is God in light of the birth, ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus?

The only way to understand Paul is to keep these three factors in mind: Paul viewed human origins according to a man of his time, Paul’s creative hermeneutic is attributed to first century Judaism and Paul passed his theology through the crucified and risen Christ.

Thank you Pete for writing such a detailed and comprehensive book that has helped me better understand this amazing Bible!

If evolution is real, what do you do with Adam? Pete Enns aims to release the tension between science and the biblical view of Adam by answering this question: "Can evolution and a biblically rooted Christian faith coexist?"

Individual chapters often felt dense to me, but the subject matter called for it. In the end, Enns still gets his message across to even the casual reader:

"Working through the implications of evolution may remind Christians that trusting God’s goodness is a daily decision, a spiritually fulfilling act of recommitment to surrender to God no matter what."

In other words, science and Christianity do mix, if we don't force "Scripture to conform to our familiar expectations."

I appreciate Enns' humility in not having to understand it all. "Christians should not search through the creation stories for scientific information they believe it is important to see there. They should read it as the New Testament writers did: as ancient stories transformed in Christ."

Ultimately we must be willing to take Scripture in the context it was written in.

"Paul engaged his Scripture against the backdrop of hermeneutical conventions of his day, not ours, and we must understand Paul in that context. In other words, in the same way that we must calibrate the genre of Genesis by looking at the surrounding culture, we must also calibrate Paul’s interpretation of the Old Testament within his ancient world. That is a courtesy we owe any writer, especially a biblical one."

While this book isn't as easy to comprehend as some of Enns' other books, it is worth reading (maybe even a second reading to really get it all).

My thanks to NetGalley + Baker Academic & Brazos Press for the review copy of this book.