Friday 27 March 2015

The Bible among the Myths

David Green of LTS recommended this book by John Oswalt a few years ago at a John Owen Conference and I have just got round to reading it.

Oswalt sets about convincing the reader that the religion of the Bible is not in the same category as pagan religious and its contents are not to be classed alongside myths (and he has a concise but useful discussion about what 'myth' is. He also points out that the Bible's approach to, and use of, history is not just different from but out of a different worldview from pagan religions.

His basic contention is that the bible is defined by transcendence, mythical approaches to religion and revelation by continuity (or we might say pantheism or panentheism).

It is a thoroughly stimulating work, useful at the level of apologetics in a world which is rapidly departing from transcendence, as well as being useful in its own field of Old Testament studies.

I read the book through and then read it again quickly to get hold of his main points. I would thoroughly recommend this for any minister or thoughtful Christian - or non-Christian - as a powerful antidote to the creeping pantheism of the age and to a diminishing grasp of the Bible's uniqueness.

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