The Book of Love: A Better Way to Read the Bible (Richard Beck) - A Review
It is said that the Bible is the
best-selling book of all time. It has been translated into numerous languages with
multiple versions. Most Christian homes have at least a copy or two. The same
would be true, I would assume, of most Jewish homes (though there are
differences). Despite its "popularity," our engagement with the Bible
is complicated. We often forget that this is an ancient book that reflects its
own context, and therefore, it must be interpreted. The way people interpret
scripture can differ markedly. Depending on the lenses through which we read
this ancient book, will lead to very different outcomes.
For many people, attaching the
label The Book of Love to the Bible may seem odd. After all, the Bible
has been used to justify all kinds of problematic actions and viewpoints, from
slavery to genocide. Nevertheless, Richard Beck—a lifelong member of the
Churches of Christ, professor of psychology at Abilene Christian University,
blogger, and author of numerous books that have proven insightful for many
(including me)—believes that it is possible to read the Bible as a Book of
Love.
In The Book of Love: A Better Way to Read the Bible, Richard Beck argues that there is a way to read the
Bible, a book that has been used to harm people, as a Book of Love. In
acknowledgment of the challenges facing those who interpret the Bible, Beck introduces
the book with a story from his youth. It is the story of a sermon about hell
that he preached as a twelve-year-old at his fundamentalist church. As he
preached his fire and brimstone sermon, which he based on a tract he found at
the church, he began to weep. The description of hell he encountered in this
tract bothered him greatly, leading to a journey of discovery toward a better
way of reading scripture and living the Christian faith. The Book of Love emerged
out of that journey. Beck rightfully points out that the way we read scripture
and view God are interrelated: "Get God wrong, and you get the Bible
wrong. Get the Bible wrong, and you get God wrong" (p. 3). While this is
true, he has concluded that whether we are progressive or conservative, we will
likely not read the Bible well. Beck offers The Book of Love as an invitation
to read the Bible well.
Beck divides his book into four
parts, three of which focus on the text of Scripture, while the opening section
speaks to how we might read the Bible better. The first section (Part One), titled
"Daring to Trust," has three chapters, the first of which is
provocatively titled "Don't Be an Ostrich." In other words, don't
stick your head in the sand. I should note that Beck draws on his personal
life, including his ministry as a professor and as a prison chaplain, to
communicate his point. In this chapter, he lets us know that he is going to be
dealing with what is called hermeneutics, which simply means interpretation.
Whether we realize it or not, he wants us to know that we all have a
hermeneutic. If we want to read the Bible well, we need to face that fact. That
is where this dare to trust God comes into play. This leads, in his view, to
reading the Bible as a book of love. Since the way we view God is related to
how we read the Bible, we need to address our theological starting point, which
is the subject of Chapter 2, “God is Better.” What Beck discovered through
experience and reading Scripture is that God is love and that God's love is
greater than our own, something he learned reading George McDonald. This
discussion of the nature of God as love as the starting point for reading scripture
leads us to chapter 3, titled "You Can't Read the Bible Scared." In
other words, to read the Bible well, we need to have what psychologists call a
"secure attachment," in this case to God. Beck draws on Paul's
statement that "nothing can separate us from the love of God." So, to
read better, we need to ask ourselves if we believe that God has our back. If we can say yes, then we can read the Bible
as a Book of Love.
Part Two is titled "The Hebrew
Scriptures." This section offers eight chapters. Beck doesn't attempt to
cover everything in the Old Testament. Rather, he focuses on the thread that
lifts up God's love and the call to love. The first chapter (Chapter 4),
"In the Beginning," covers creation. He opens this chapter with the
story of Maxmillian Kolbe's decision to die in the place of another at
Auschwitz. This leads to the chapter's focus on the importance of origins, but
with a twist. He uses this chapter to contrast the Hebrew understanding of
creation with that of its neighbors. In doing so, he offers a contrast between
an "ontology of life" versus an "ontology of death." Thus,
Kolbe represents the biblical ontology of life. Then, in Chapter 5, titled "Diamonds,
Dignity, and the Imago Dei," the author uses a story about Dorothy Day,
diamonds, and human dignity/worth, in line with being created in God's image.
He writes in conclusion that "As the birthplace of human dignity, the Book
of Love is the cry of the prophets, the hope of the oppressed, and our dream of
a better world" (p. 62). The Hebrew
Bible also contains stories about how things went wrong; thus, chapter 6 is
titled "The Catastrophe," where Beck deals with questions of evil and
suffering, and the response of the Book of Love. In "The Vow of Love"
(Chapter 7), Beck deals with the idea of God's covenant with the people of
Israel and how God dealt with a people who often went astray. In this chapter,
Beck introduces us to the Hebrew word for love— "hesed" —which serves
as the foundation of God's covenant and Israel's hope, for "Grace will
write our final chapter" (p. 87).
You can't tell the story of the Hebrew Bible without referencing Moses
and Pharaoh. Thus, chapter 8 is titled "Tell Old Pharaoh, Let My People
Go." This is a theme that gave hope to enslaved Blacks in Antebellum
America, many of whom were led free by a different Moses, Harriet Tubman. At a
time when anti-DEI reigns supreme in America, in chapter 9, titled "Saved
by Difference," Beck begins with Jesus' response to the Syro-Phoenician
woman. As he uses this story to address the idea of the particularity of God's
love of Israel, he deals with the issue of election, reflecting on how love can
be both particular and universal, something we may struggle with. Thus, he
writes that "Love is a dance between the particular and the
universal." In Chapter 10, "From Grasping to Gratitude," Beck
starts with Ecclesiastes, as such explores the issue of idolatry, which works
against love by working against contentment. The final chapter in Part Two is
titled "Mercy, Not Sacrifice" (Chapter 11). Here, he takes note of
the idea of progressive revelation and the ongoing theological development
within the Hebrew Scriptures, as well as leading to Jesus. The focus here,
however, starting with Jonah, has to do with the move from exclusion to
inclusion, as well as a critique of the cultic emphasis on ritual purity,
whereas the God of the prophets demands mercy, not sacrifice. In this chapter
that features the story of Jonah and God relenting from judgment, Beck wrestles
with the depiction of violence in the Hebrew Bible, reminding us that the other
side of the coin is the picture of God being "gracious and merciful, slow
to anger, and abounding in steadfast love" (p. 139). That includes the
Ninevites, much to Jonah's chagrin, "such is the scandal of the Book of
Love."
We move in Part Three to "The
Gospels." He devotes three chapters to the Gospels, beginning with a
chapter titled "This Is the Way" (Chapter 12). In this chapter, Beck
reminds us that according to the Gospels, Jesus was a teacher who taught a
particular way of living, since his "the way, the truth, and the
life." Thus, the Gospels offer us a look at the way of the kingdom of God,
which exists within us. It is a way of love—love of God and love of neighbor.
Then in Chapter 13, Beck reflects on the topic of "Loved from the
Foundation of the World." Here, he addresses the question of salvation and
Jesus' offer of forgiveness before his death. How is that? I will leave it to
the reader to discover what Beck has to say about such things, but it does
appear that, according to the Gospels, all of this goes back to the foundation
of the world, such that God's love in Christ is foundational. The final chapter
in this section carries a title that any reader of Augustine's
[book:Confessions|27037]— "The Great Pear Theft" (Chapter 14). Here
again, Beck deals with the human predicament and Jesus' role in God's response.
While our shame might be significant, Beck reminds us that God's grace is
greater, something Jesus revealed.
Part Four deals with the rest of
the New Testament: "Acts, the Epistles, and Revelation." There are
seven chapters in this section, beginning in Chapter 15 with a focus on Acts 17,
which records Paul's proclamation of Jesus as the Son of God and Savior,
something Rome didn't appreciate. The focus here is on Paul's proclamation of
the resurrection, in which love defeated death. But he also deals with the
larger vision of the early Christians, where love defined the way they lived
together. Chapter 16, "The Stories Won," keeps us in Acts with the
story of Cornelius and Peter's discovery that what he considered unclean, God
considered clean. Therefore, Gentiles were to be seen as clean. In Chapter 17,
"The Revolution of Grace," Beck explores Paul's vision of grace and
how it revolutionized the concept. For Paul, grace was free, something that his
culture didn't embrace. With this new concept of grace, a capacity was created
where social differences might be overcome. Societies' hierarchies then and
now, in this view, no longer reigned, such that the fences that divide are
removed. We then move on to a chapter dealing with "How to be a Human
Being" (chapter 18). Here we ponder our human frailty, which Paul
understood theologically in relation to God turning things upside down, such
that God chooses the weak things over the strong. This is a word we need at
this moment, where this idea of a muscular Christianity is once again taking
hold, where Christians are pursuing the power to dominate society. Such is not
the way of God, as understood by Paul. Having explored this Book of Love in
various ways, when we get to chapter 19, Beck addresses "The Shape of
Love." He brings into the conversation the turn among many psychologists
to positive psychology. The question here is what the "good life"
looks like. But more than that, what does love look like? How is it shaped? If
you've read Beck's earlier books, perhaps you read his book on Johnny Cash. The
title of one of his final songs was "When the Man Comes Around,"
which deals with Christ as judge. The question of how the Bible can offer words
of judgment, even speak of hell, and be a book of love needs to be addressed.
Beck doesn't shy away from this subject but offers a twist. The final chapter
appropriately takes us to the book of Revelation. In "The War of the
Lamb" (Chapter 21), he steers us away from the dispensationalism of Darby,
Scofield, Lindsey, and LaHaye, to a better reading of Revelation that is in
keeping with the lens of love. Here is a reminder that the Lion of Judah is the
Lamb of God, who conquers not through expressing violence but bearing it.
I am a preacher who draws upon
Scripture (I generally preach from the Revised Common Lectionary). Therefore, I
have encountered the challenging parts of Scripture. Nevertheless, I agree with
Richard Beck that if we use the lens of love to interpret Scripture, it can be
read as a Book of Love. This is an important matter of concern since we are
living at a time when the Bible is being weaponized, much as it was when used
to defend slavery. So, we need a word like this to remind us that the
God revealed in Scripture, the God Christians embrace in Jesus, is a God of
love. Even when I do not agree with Beck, I always find him thought-provoking
and always a good read. So, if we attend to Richard Beck’s words of wisdom
provided to us in The Book of Love, we should find A Better Way to Read the Bible. So, take and read!
Copies of The Book of Love may be purchased at your favorite outlet, including my Amazon Bookstore and my Bookshop.org affiliate.
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