Is it Sexist, Oppressive, Homophobic, Outdated or Irrelevant?
Author: Orr-Ewing, Amy (1977 – ) EMEA Director for RZIM, and Director of the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics (OCCA).
Amy is a passionate exponent of a rational Christian response to many of the pressing cultural issues of the day, bringing her formidable theological knowledge to bear on a wide variety of subjects. She gained a first-class degree in Theology at Christ Church, Oxford University, before receiving a Master’s in Theology from King’s College London. She is currently working on her Doctoral Thesis at Oxford University looking at the work of Dorothy L Sayers. (From the author’s bio page on the website of RZIM Ministries, Zacharias Trust on 3/24/17 http://www.rzim.eu/bios/amy-orr-ewing)
Published: Downers Grove, IL. Varsity Press c 2005
Type of book: Non-fiction, Religious, Christian, Apologetic
Purpose: We’ve all been confronted with tough questions about our faith in general and tough questions about the Bible from both skeptics and believers alike. The author has taken the top 10 most frequently asked questions in her experience and endeavored, not only to give an answer but to offer a thoughtful response to these questions in order to evoke discussion and inspire the inquirer to give the Bible another look.
Argument: The author has found that a conviction that the Bible must be wrong is held by most of those at the highest levels of academics and has also been embraced at the popular level by many people who have barely given the Bible a glance. Many of the questions asked of our author during her speaking engagements all over the globe are less about the facts and truth and more about ethics and interpretation.
The top 10 questions regarding the Bible, the answers to which form the core of this work are as follows:
- Isn’t it all a matter of interpretation?
- Can we know anything about history?
- Are the biblical manuscripts reliable?
- Is the content of the manuscripts reliable?
- What about the canon?
- What about the other holy books?
- Isn’t the Bible Sexist?
- What about all the wars?
- Isn’t the Bible out of date on sex?
- How can I know?
From the back cover:
Of all the books in the world, the Bible sticks out like a sore thumb:
For some, it’s uniquely and divinely inspired, and thus the only authoritative source of truth.
For others, it’s a quaint relic from a bygone era that offers personal comfort to some but little more to anyone else.
For still others, the Bible is a tool of sexist oppression, or a reactionary account of a violent God, or an arrogant detractor of other holy books, or even an indecipherable mess.
But the Bible has withstood such criticism over the centuries, and as our author shows, it bares surprising relevance to this generation.
For a closer examination of the answers given to these and other tough question regarding our Faith, click on the chapter names to be taken to blog posts in an apologetic series in which tough questions are given thoughtful answers.
Sketches on the way 