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Summary: Pilgrimage to Biblical Liberation
Review: I had to read this book as a requirement for my doctoral studies, and had no previous interest in it. Swartley's studies helped me understand that the personal and social decisions we make for our lives which we base on Scripture depend on the place where we start in Scripture. For instance, if we are discussing the place of women in ministry, our conclusion will be very different if we start with the idea of authority than if we start with the idea of the image of God (Gen. 5:1,2). Swartley's analysis of how antebellum Bible expositors used the Bible to support slavery is very telling in how we use the Bible in regard to the place of women in church and society. His method of graphically analyzing the sabbath from traditional Catholic, Protestant, and Anabaptist (radical) perspectives is particularly helpful. Rev. Clint Akins, D.Min. Director of Cross-cultural Research Evangelical Leadership Training Center Antananarivo, Madagascar
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Summary: Nothing like it
Review: One of the aspects of Mr. Swartley's book that I found most interesting was his treatment of hermenuetics. He outlines 22 principles which every evangelical student of Scripture should utilize in attempting to interpret scripture. He begins with "Quoting the Bible does not in itself guarantee correctness of position" and moves through increasingly pragmatic suggestions for interpretation designed to minimize the development of embarrassing proof-texts. A must read for anyone concerned that the words spoken in the pulpit today may have to be dined upon tomorrow!
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Summary: Valuable on Multiple Levels
Review: One of the aspects of Mr. Swartley's book that I found most interesting was his treatment of hermenuetics. He outlines 22 principles which every evangelical student of Scripture should utilize in attempting to interpret scripture. He begins with "Quoting the Bible does not in itself guarantee correctness of position" and moves through increasingly pragmatic suggestions for interpretation designed to minimize the development of embarrassing proof-texts. A must read for anyone concerned that the words spoken in the pulpit today may have to be dined upon tomorrow!
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Summary: Nothing like it
Review: The book is now dated, but it has aged gracefully. There is nothing else like it. The beauty of the book, which makes it enduringly useful, is its presentation of arguments actually made on both sides of the questions: whether holding slaves is biblical, whether Christian worship should be on Saturday or Sunday, whether Christians may or should not participate in war, and whether women may or should not be ordained to Christian ministry. For most readers, these questions will have been long since settled. By presenting arguments, in their own wards, on both sides, Swartley shows how delicate and tenuous have been those settlements, as they claim biblical warrant for themselves. Anyone concerned with the interpretation of scripture in relation to contested issues, moral and theological, should read this book. It is excellent.
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Summary: Fails the Test, .... but Creative
Review: This book is for you if you are willing to accept the position of "creative" biblical interpretation. The format is exposition of the author's thesis using case studies. The case studies are designed to convince the reader that traditional interpretation approach is incapable of "seeing" beyond the literal concepts into the "true" and liberating meaning. The author's selection of substantiating cases are seriously flawed as references are admitadly drawn only from bible commentors from the 1950's on. The book appears to be apologetic for justification of women as pastors and preachers.
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