Journal: Priscilla Papers
Volume: PP 24:3 (Summer 2010)
Article: Book Review: "Abusing Scripture: The Consequences Of Misreading The Bible" By Manfred T. Brauch (IVP Academic, 2009)
Author: Arbutus Lichti Sider

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PP 24:3 (Summer 2010) p. 26

Book Review: Abusing Scripture: The Consequences Of Misreading The Bible By Manfred T. Brauch (IVP Academic, 2009)

Arbutus Sider

Arbutus Lichti Sider served as a marriage and family therapist for more than twenty years. Since her retirement in 2006, she consults with local churches to strengthen marriages and families and works with Christians for Biblical Equality against systemic discrimination in the church. She has published articles in The Other Side, Christian Living, the Journal of Christian Healing, and Mutuality.

As usual when picking up a new book, I glanced at the back cover of Abusing Scripture. Both reviewers were highly supportive, but what was not clear to me was the meaning of some of the words. I reached for the dictionary: “the perspicuity of Scripture” means lucidity or clarity. There was a hint that, had I been from the Reformed tradition, I would have known that one. For clarity about this phrase in the second review: “. .. those who would cage the Bible with obscurantist, selective and bowdlerized readings,...” I finally learned from Webster’s Encyclopedic Dictionary that such a one “opposes the progress of knowledge ... to prevent enlightenment, inquiry, or reform.” “Bowdlerizing” has to do with “expunging texts of objectionable matter, on moral grounds.” Apparently it comes from a nineteenth-century man named Bowdler who expunged parts of Shakespeare so he could be read “with propriety” in the family.

If, like me, you are neither a theologian nor a professor, no need to fear opening the covers of Manfred Brauch’s Abusing Scripture: The Consequences of Misreading the Bible. Brauch is a retired professor of biblical theology and past president of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now Palmer Theological Seminary) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His book is quite readable as he is careful to keep his lay readership in mind.

Professor Brauch is writing primarily to evangelicals who, like himself, hold the Bible as the unique word of God, guiding our faith and daily practice. Brauch contends that those who claim this high level of commitment to Scripture are the more accountable to rightly divide the word of truth. Yet, Brauch claims, “on a regular basis, in our interpretation and application of the Bible, we grievously abuse Scripture; we do violence to its message and meaning” (16). Like all abuse and violence, this type of abuse has consequences. Not only does it distort the meaning of Scripture, but also prevents the Christian witness from being effectively presented, and it contributes to the abuse and brokenness in our world. Instead of focusing on relatively benign misinterpretations of Scriptures that may affect doctrinal nuances or end times issue...

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