Learning to Read
I think I have found my dream-student. Slate.com is carrying a blog by one of its regular writers called “Blogging the Bible.” He’s going through the Torah as a semi-observant, but not completely immersed Jew, admitting his lack of knowledge of the text, and reading it right out and honestly, straight through, not skipping the boring parts, and asking hard questions.
If I could do anything in my ministerial role as teacher of Scripture, it would be to get people to read the Bible like this. (True confession–if I could do anything in my personal devotional life, it would be to get me to read the Bible like this.)
Everyone who loves the Bible, as literature, as spiritual-road map, should be reading this blog. It reminds us how someone might read the Bible coming to it for the first time, but it also reminds us how we ought to come to the Bible, discarding what we think we know, and leaving ourselves open to read what is actually written there.