Lies My Preacher Told Me (Brent Strawn) -- A Review

 

LIES MY PREACHER TOLD ME: An Honest Look at the Old Testament. By Brent A. Strawn. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2021. Xi + 116 pages.

                Where did you learn what you know about the Bible?  Was it in Sunday School? Perhaps it was listening to sermons? Perhaps, you have been taking in a TV documentary, but just a word of caution, not everything you learn from the history channel is true or accurate! While I wouldn’t go to the History Channel as my authoritative guide to the bible, I’ve heard some rather unfortunate and untrue statements issued from pulpits. The title of the book under review may prove shocking, and there’s a reason for the title. It’s designed to catch our attention.

                When it comes to the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible people often have certain preconceived notions about its contents, its usefulness, and its authority. Some traditions, like the one I'm part of, emphasized the New Testament and found little value in the Old Testament. It's old for a reason, right? At least that's what some believe. There are those, like Marcion, a second-century Christian, who suggested that the Old Testament was inspired by a god other than the one Jesus proclaimed. His teachings were rightfully rejected by the early church, but Marcionism is still prevalent in our churches.

                The author of Lies My Preacher Told Me is Brent Strawn, a professor of Old Testament and Law at Duke University. In this book, Strawn responds to ten "mistruths" that have been promulgated about the Old Testament. As for the title, which might include me among the lying preachers, it is a bit tongue in cheek. Strawn's title riffs on James Loewen's book Lies My TeacherTold Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. Strawn writes that in choosing the title he doesn’t intend disrespect for preachers or Sunday school teachers, at least the good ones. That being said, no one is above making mistakes and misrepresentations of what is in the text. I’m sure I’ve made at least a few. Therefore, he uses the book to address some of the ways in which the Old Testament has been portrayed inappropriately due to the presenters being either ill-informed or not fully informed. In this book, Strawn is not presuming that these mistruths are the result of intentional acts of misrepresentation. Nevertheless, uninformed messages about the Bible are still a problem.

                So here are the ten mistruths that have been discerned by the author as being of importance. The first mistruth suggests that "the Old Testament is "someone else's mail." In this first chapter, he addresses the idea that the Old Testament belongs to someone else and therefore has no value for a modern Christian. While this testament wasn't written with Christians in mind, it has something to say to Christians because it is part of the Christian canon. Therefore, it's our mail—no matter what Marcion said. The second mistruth suggests that the Old Testament is a "boring history book." Now, as a historian, I take offense at the idea that a history book would be boring, but what he has in mind here is the belief that the Old Testament is just a collection of irrelevant names, places, and dates. While one might find history present in the books of the Old Testament, they are more than history and if read with openness these texts are quite fascinating. Besides the charge that it is boring, there is the belief that it has been rendered obsolete. Remember, it's old and has been replaced by a new model. Again, the Old Testament remains part of Christian scripture and is useful for Christian reflection. It's not been put out to pasture.

                Among other charges is the old saw, one Marcion imbibed and taught, that the God of the Old Testament is mean or wrathful. This belief is compounded by the unfortunate belief that Jesus changed God's attitudes, making God less mean. The truth is that God as revealed in the Old Testament is loving and compassionate, even when responding with anger at injustice and sin. As Strawn writes in his clarification "God's judgment of those things is in service to setting the world aright" (p. 39). The related charge is that the Old Testament is "hyper-violent." Truth be told there is a lot of violence there, but it's present in the New Testament as well (ever read Revelation?). The question is, why the violence? Is it not a reflection on human violence? Perhaps God is committed to reducing violence.

                There are other issues that might not seem as problematic as the ones above, but we need to be careful, as he lays out concerning "mistruth 6," with "unhelpful historical assertions" like David being the author of the Psalms. Some are indeed attributed to him, but not all, and even those attributed to him might be dedicated to him. So be careful. Just because Jesus spoke of David being the author, doesn't mean he is the author—tradition may have had something to do with that!

                It's a bit surprising that anyone would suggest that the Old Testament is not spiritually enriching. Have they not read the Psalms or the opening chapter of Genesis? But that also is a mistruth—mistruth number 7. In response, Strawn mentions several examples of how the Old Testament is enriching. Then there is the charge that it's not practical or relevant (mistruth number 8). Again, the author takes us through some of the ways in which it is useful to us as Christians. It's hard to believe that anyone, especially a preacher would make that charge, but apparently, it's been made!

                Number 9 may have its roots in Paul's letter to the Romans. This idea that the Law is a burden to keep is problematic. Now, Jesus did amplify things a bit, turning anger into murder and lust into adultery, but we can decide not to murder or commit adultery or steal. We can abide by the laws concerning what we eat and wear. I have plenty of Jewish friends who would disagree with the idea that the law can't be kept. In fact, the Law has much to say to us about how we live before God and with one another.

                The final mistruth has to do with Jesus’ connection to the Old Testament. There are those who see Jesus on every page of the Old Testament, but the fact is, not everything is about Jesus. I do find it interesting, though, that Strawn claims that we shouldn’t read Jesus into every verse of the Old Testament, and yet he suggests we would be well served by reading it with a Trinitarian lens. As a Trinitarian, I can understand the idea, but again, my Jewish friends wouldn't find a Trinitarian reading of the text any better than a Christological one. Nevertheless, I get his point.

                LiesMy Preacher Told Me is one of those short but intriguing books that is written in a way that catches our eye while also drawing us into important conversations. In this case, the focus is on the ways people have misread, misinterpreted, and misrepresented the Old Testament. Whether we fall into any of these traps or not, it is good to be reminded to take a look at the ways we approach this first testament. The truth is, the Old Testament isn't obsolete, and it does have much to offer us as Christians.