Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1 - A Problematic Book

Chapter 2 - God

Chapter 3 - Angels, Demons, and a Talking Ass

Chapter 4 - Good People Behaving Badly

Chapter 5 - Impossibilities, Normalized

Chapter 6 - Misconception, Misapprehensions

Chapter 7 - And General Befuddlements

Chapter 8 - Arguments Behind Closed Doors

Chapter 9 - Biblical (Im)morality

Chapter 10 - But in the Original...

Chapter 11 - The Perennial Bestseller

Chapter 12 - Ten Commandments for [Best Word Here] the Bible

In Conclusion, Sola Scriputra

Notes

Index

About the Author

Kristin Swenson is Associate Professor of Religious at Virginia Commonwealth University. She is the author of Bible Babel: Making Sense of the Most Talked About Book of All Time and Living through Pain: Psalms and the Search for Wholeness.

Reviews

"Rather than dismiss the Bible as an outlandish or irrelevant relic of antiquity, Swenson leans into the messiness full throttle. Making ample room for discomfort, wonder, and weirdness, A Most Peculiar Book guides readers through a Bible that will feel, to many, brand new." -- Church Times
"Alongside the many controversial issues and complexities that the Bible poses, Swenson has herein brought everything to within a very fine appreciation of transparent proposal and the most utmost of appeal." -- David Marx Book Reviews
"Rigorous [and] stimulating... Both religious and secular readers will benefit from Swenson's illuminating analysis of the Bible's contradictions and oddities."
--Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
"Do you think you know the Bible? Wait till you read Kristin Swenson's new book. What if you don't know the Bible at all? Even better. A Most Peculiar Book is a deeply informed, completely accessible, and endlessly fascinating explanation of what scholars know about the Bible and lay people, as a rule, do not. Read this book and prepare to learn!" -- Bart D. Ehrman, author of Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife
"One can only truly love and respect the Bible if one is willing to embrace its complexities, problems, messiness, and just plain weirdness. Whether you are looking to deepen your relationship with sacred scripture or are coming to the Bible for the first time, Kristin Swenson will help you appreciate DL even love DL the Bible as it is." -- Peter Enns, author of The Bible Tells Me So and How the Bible Actually Works
"A stimulating and challenging book, which questions all simplistic 'Bible-believing' theories about the authority of Scripture by showing how complex and contradictory it often is. Kristin Swenson tackles the problems head on while still making good her claim to love the Bible." -- John Barton, author of A History of the Bible: The Story of the World's Most Influential Book
"[Swenson] writes this insightful and instructive book for the believer, the unbeliever, and the ones in between, since they all might have interest in its methods of interpretation." --Library Journal
"Swenson has written an interesting, intriguing, and worthwhile volume on how the Bible can sometimes be a complex and difficult book."--Gospel Coalition