Book Review—The Bible and Contemporary Culture

Theissen, Gerd. The Bible and Contemporary Culture. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007. Paperback, 176 pages. $16.00

(Review copy courtesy of Fortress Press)
Purchase: Augsburg/Fortress, CBD, Amazon

Publisher’s press release.

Special Features: Endnotes; Index of Ancient Texts [Scripture]; & Index of Names and Subjects

ISBNs: 0800638638 / 9780800638634

LCCN: BS511.3.T46 2007>

DCN: 220.6

Subjects: Bible, Contemporary Culture

GERD THEISSEN (b. 1943) is Professor of New Testament theology at the University of Heidelberg in Germany (since 1980). He earned a first doctorate (Theology) in 1968 and a second in 1972 (Habilitation). He was a private lecturer at the University of Bonn from 1973 to 1978 and a professor at Copenhagen from 1978 to 1980. He is most notable for his attempts to wed the fields of sociology and theology with a particular emphasis on the person of Jesus Christ and the formation of the early church. Here is a sampling of his titles: The Shadow of the Galilean: The Quest of the Historical Jesus in Narrative Form (1987); The Historical Jesus: A Comprehensive Guide, co-authored with Annette Merz (1998); The Quest for the Plausible Jesus: The Question of Criteria (2002); and the Fortress Introduction to the New Testament (2003).

NOTE: Professor Theissen is a theologically liberal scholar. Anthony Hayden will point out some specific doctrinal areas of which the reader ought to be aware in his review below. Theissen’s contributions in the areas of Jesus and Paul studies are gaining more and more attention in the scholarly world. Other prominent names in the fields of Jesus and Paul studies are J.D. Crossan, Marcus Borg, N.T. Wright, and James D. G. Dunn. While it is not necessary for most pastors and laymen to be concerned with these writers, it will be helpful for the serious Bible student to be aware of who they are and what they are saying. That said, the ideas proposed in this book can be seen around us in the broader church. The desire to secularize the church and the Bible, to bow to the contemporary culture, is a serious issue which we must vehemently oppose. (SharperIron Book Review Editor)

The best-selling copyrighted book in the world is the Guiness Book of World Records. However, its sales pale in comparison to the Bible. The Bible has been the best-selling non-copyrighted book for centuries. The Bible has been translated into more languages than any other book. It has had a profound impact on both world history and American history. Its influence is unrivaled. One’s view of the Bible significantly shapes aspects of his personal, social, and professional outlook on life. The Bible demands a decision and will elicit a response. In The Bible and Contemporary Culture, Gerd Theissen seeks to answer the age-old question of “Why consider the Bible?” (p. viii). His desire is that everyone—Christian and Non-Christian, Hindu and Buddhist, Atheist and Agnostic—would be able to approach the Bible with an unbiased, open, and genuine dialogue.

In the 163 pages of this book, Theissen gives two clear reasons for Bible interaction. The first is found on page 90:

Now we can formulate an answer to the questions, why do we read the Bible? And why do we teach it? The most important purpose is instruction in a religious language that can—but need not—become the language of vital religious experience.

Second:

The Bible is one of the foundations of our culture and has influenced so many people that it should be known and understood. There would certainly be many good reasons for reading this book—even if it is not considered the book above all others (p. 135).

Both of these reasons possess some legitimacy, but it is his subtle comments—set off by dashes—that drain the potency of these statements. Theissen also spends more time developing a theory of religion than addressing the legitimacy of the Bible.

His introduction begins with a great explanation for the need of biblical literacy. He does not, however, discuss any solutions; he only states the problem that exists today. From there, he goes right into a scathing review of Fundamentalism as a movement (p. xv). Since I would consider myself a fundamentalist, this review definitely set a strained tone for the rest of his book. He also comes from a very liberal, modernistic milieu; and evolutionary philosophy pervades his thinking.

In Chapter 1, “Why Any Educated Person Should Know the Bible,” Theissen spends little time actually answering the question. He attempts to lay a philosophical foundation for Bible study and succeeds to a degree, but the depth of the topic is difficult to cover in limited space. He also writes an interesting narrative of how alien observers with no knowledge of religion would perceive how humans have evolved into religious beings. Again, his focus is more on a theory of religion than on the Bible.

Chapters 2 and 3 were the most profitable chapters. Here, Theissen analyzes the “essentials” and “core themes” of the Bible. He addresses the material from the angle of Biblical Theology as opposed to Systematic Theology. This approach helps to keep things in context and reveals how things develop. The problem comes when Theissen goes beyond the scope of Biblical Theology and extends each theme into a relativistic soup of “Can’t-We-All-Just–Get–Along–ism.”

Chapter 4 emphasizes the need for “dialogue.” He calls for dialogue between the Bible and secularism, the Bible and other religions, the Bible and denominations. His whole discussion is overflowing with the buzzwords of liberalism: dialogue, conversation, pluralism, redaction, form criticism, etc. He spends much of the chapter discussing the common ground between Christianity and the other religions of the world. In his mind, the Bible would be on the same shelf as the Koran, the Upanishads, or the Eightfold Path.

His intended audience is secular, educated, philosophical students. His word choice and lines of thinking put it out of reach for many average readers and thinkers. I cannot recommend this book for any reason. His orthodoxy is suspect on Christology and Pneumatology, and his position in Bibliology is weak at best. He seems to get caught up in tangents and rarely addresses issues and questions that he himself raises. At times, it was almost as if he was purposely making his points difficult.

Positively, this was a good exercise in discernment. Each page presented some issue that had to be hashed through. This book requires a close eye for subtlety. Often, what I thought he meant and what he really meant were not even close. Also, this book exposed me to some of the errors in logic associated with the movement for dialogue. It seemed that it was necessary to reduce religion to the lowest common denominator in order to create genuine openness, but as soon as one reaches beyond what is common, dialogue is no longer possible.

Personally, this was a difficult book to read. The relativism was overwhelming, his handling of Scripture was shifty, and his willingness to sacrifice truth for the sake of unity was downright appalling. There was a glimmer of hope for true biblical understanding and Christianity in the second to last paragraph:

This is therefore the potential of biblical identity at the start of the third millennium: the possibility that biblical texts may communicate the fundamental motifs of thought, experience, and action that enable what Christian faith traditionally has called dialogue with God, a living relationship with Jesus, and a life transformed by the Spirit (p. 152).

Theissen, however, dashes these hopes and once again confuses the ideas of dialogue in the last paragraph with these words:

On the part of Christians, such dialogue [The Bible and Culture] cannot be motivated by the aim of making others into adherents to the Christian faith, but by the more modest purpose of gaining for it understanding and respect. For the rest of us, such dialogue means getting past our prejudices and learned responses to “religion” long enough to ask, in an open and sustained way, whether the Bible after all helps us understand ourselves and helps us live more meaningfully in contemporary culture (p. 152).

Anthony Hayden currently serves as the music director of Mt. Tabor Baptist Church (Lebanon, IN). Prior to his present ministry, he and his wife, Mary, taught for two years at a Christian school on the island of Saipan in the western Pacific. Anthony graduated from Bob Jones University (Greenville, SC) in 2000 with a B.Mus. in Church Music and an M.A. in Teaching Bible in 2002. Anthony and Mary have a one-year-old daughter, Mercy.