A Most Peculiar Book

The Inherent Strangeness of the Bible

By: Kristin Swenson

Narrated by: Pam Ward

The Bible, we are constantly reminded, is the best-selling book of all time. It is read with intense devotion by hundreds of millions of people, stands as authoritative for Judaism and Christianity, and informs and affects the politics and lives of the religious and non-religious around the world. But how well do we really know it? The Bible is so familiar, so ubiquitous that we have begun to take our knowledge of it for granted. The Bible many of us think we know is a pale imitation of the real thing.

In A Most Peculiar Book, Kristin Swenson addresses the dirty little secret of biblical studies that the Bible is a weird book. It is full of surprises and contradictions, unexplained impossibilities, intriguing supernatural creatures, and heroes doing horrible deeds. It does not provide a simple worldview: What "the Bible says" on a given topic is multi-faceted, sometimes even contradictory. Yet, Swenson argues, we have a tendency to reduce the complexities of the Bible to aphorisms, bumper stickers, and slogans. Swenson helps listeners look at the text with fresh eyes. A collection of ancient stories and poetry written by multiple authors, held together by the tenuous string of tradition, the Bible often undermines our modern assumptions. And is all the more marvelous and powerful for it.

©2021 Kristin Swenson (P)2021 Tantor

Amazing, the Bible doesn't say what we think!

Abortion isn't prohibited in the Bible, nor contraception or many other things you may have been told! She helps to unwrap the patriarchal lens that has tainted the Bible over the millennia from a feminist perspective, backed with real evidence. She further discusses much more! An amazing and essential read!