What is the Bible for?

A rip-roaring library to inspire ongoing conversation

What’s the Bible for? We asked dozens of writers to respond to this question in seven words or less, as well as to expand on their response in a few sentences. To see all of the responses together as they are posted, bookmark this page.

A rip-roaring library to inspire ongoing conversation

Many of us were taught to read the Bible as a law code or constitution. We interpreted it and argued about it like lawyers. We saw that it could be weaponized to cause great harm and used to prove almost anything. Many of us are coming to see the Bible as a library: a collection of artifacts that record argument, struggle, breakthrough, discovery, and more. It doesn’t end conversation but keeps us grappling with important questions.

Brian D. McLaren

Brian D. McLaren is author of A New Kind of Christianity and We Make the Road by Walking: A Year-Long Quest for Spiritual Formation, Reorientation, and Activation.

All articles »