A Most Peculiar Book

The Inherent Strangeness of the Bible

Kristin Swenson

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Hardback

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English

Oxford University Press
15 February 2021

Religion & beliefs; Religion: general; History of religion; Christianity

The Bible, we are constantly reminded, is the best-selling book of all time. It is read with intense devotion by hundreds of millions of people, stands as authoritative for Judaism and Christianity, and informs and affects the politics and lives of the religious and non-religious around the world. But how well do we really know it? The Bible is so familiar, so ubiquitous that we have begun to take our knowledge of it for granted. The Bible many of us think we know is a pale imitation of the real thing.

In A Most Peculiar Book, Kristin Swenson addresses the dirty little secret of biblical studies DL that the Bible is a weird book. It is full of surprises and contradictions, unexplained impossibilities, intriguing supernatural creatures, and heroes doing horrible deeds. It does not provide a simple worldview: what ""the Bible says"" on a given topic is multi-faceted, sometimes even contradictory. Yet, Swenson argues, we have a tendency to reduce the complexities of the Bible to aphorisms, bumper stickers, and slogans. Swenson helps readers look at the text with fresh eyes. A collection of ancient stories and poetry written by multiple authors, held together by the tenuous string of tradition, the Bible often undermines our modern assumptions. And is all the more marvelous and powerful for it.

Rather than dismiss the Bible as an outlandish or irrelevant relic of antiquity, Swenson leans into the messiness full-throttle. Making ample room for discomfort, wonder, and weirdness, A Most Peculiar Book guides readers through a Bible that will feel, to many, brand new.

By: Kristin Swenson
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 213mm, Width: 140mm, Spine: 31mm
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9780190651732
ISBN 10: 0190651733
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 15 February 2021
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Kristin Swenson is Associate Professor of Religious at Virginia Commonwealth University. She is the author of Bible Babel: Making Sense of the Most Talked About Book of All Time and Living through Pain: Psalms and the Search for Wholeness.

Reviews for A Most Peculiar Book: The Inherent Strangeness of the Bible

Rigorous [and] stimulating... Both religious and secular readers will benefit from Swenson's illuminating analysis of the Bible's contradictions and oddities. --Publishers Weekly, Starred Review Do you think you know the Bible? Wait till you read Kristin Swenson's new book. What if you don't know the Bible at all? Even better. A Most Peculiar Book is a deeply informed, completely accessible, and endlessly fascinating explanation of what scholars know about the Bible and lay people, as a rule, do not. Read this book and prepare to learn! -- Bart D. Ehrman, author of Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife One can only truly love and respect the Bible if one is willing to embrace its complexities, problems, messiness, and just plain weirdness. Whether you are looking to deepen your relationship with sacred scripture or are coming to the Bible for the first time, Kristin Swenson will help you appreciate even love the Bible as it is. -- Peter Enns, author of The Bible Tells Me So and How the Bible Actually Works A stimulating and challenging book, which questions all simplistic 'Bible-believing' theories about the authority of Scripture by showing how complex and contradictory it often is. Kristin Swenson tackles the problems head on while still making good her claim to love the Bible. -- John Barton, author of A History of the Bible: The Story of the World's Most Influential Book