Kugel's How to Read the Bible

A book review of James L.Kugel, How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now (New York: Free Press, 2007).

Have you ever had the privilege of walking along a forest path with a naturalist?  As you walk, the naturalist will point out fascinating plants, evidence of animal life, and many small details that the uninitiated simply don't see.  More than that, the naturalist will see and describe the relationships between living things that make the forest a unique and amazing ecological system, a biosphere.  Kugel is that naturalist.  The Hebrew Bible is his forest, and How to Read the Bible is the path he takes the reader along through the forest.  It is a long path, amounting to 689 pages of text plus 82 pages of endnotes.  It is also a winding one that sometimes almost disappears into the  forest as Kugel regales the reader with interesting little tidbits that don't connect very readily to any larger thread (to mix metaphors).

There is, however, a larger thread, and Kugel takes us into the forest with a larger goal in mind, namely to ask fundamental questions about the meaning and purpose of the forest itself.  Modern biblical scholarship has radically transformed our understanding of the Hebrew Bible, which raises painfully complex questions for those who read it as people of faith.  To be sure, Kugel raises these questions only in fits and starts and often enough raises them and then blithely takes up again with  the tour of the forest only many chapters later to suddenly return to those questions.  But he does return to them.  The questions themselves are important ones for Kugel.  He asks them as a practicing Jew for whom the Bible has become problematic.  Where is God, most importantly, in the scriptures if they are "merely" the product of an elaborate, centuries-long, and very human process of editing?

Kugel begins with the observation that over the centuries there have been three layers of interpretation of the Bible (by "Bible," he always means the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament).  They are: (1) the original intent of the stories and other contents of the Bible; (2) later centuries of interpretation that arose partly because original intent was eventually forgotten; and (3) modern scholarly reconstructions of original intent.  Well into his journey through the Bible, it turns out that level one is considerably more complex than we were led to believe at the beginning.  The Hebrew Bible is a patchwork of pieces of text assembled over many centuries by generations of editors who mixed, matched, added to, remixed, rematched, and added still more.  As we go through the book, moreover, we are aware of the fact that in ancient times there were variant readings, which also changed over time.  Kuegel places, for example, all Christian readings of the Old Testament into level two and, at times, shows how they were similar to and differed from Jewish readings.  In modern times, he points out we inherited level two readings as being the right way to read the Bible.

With this framework, Kugel walks us through the Hebrew Bible beginning at one end and going to the other.  Frequently, he introduces the reader to level two (traditional) readings of the text and then goes on to describe level three excavations (scholarly) of the same text.  Sometimes he doesn't.  The fact is that Kugel has assembled a book that displays some of the characteristics of the Bible itself.  He frequently introduces a portion of the Bible, talks about it a bit, and then blithely walks on without a conclusion or any clue as to the importance of that particular portion.  He simply sees a pretty little leaf, stops to admire it, and then off he goes again.  The book is also filled with lengthy quotations from the Bible put there evidently on the assumption that readers are too lazy to go and read the Bible for themselves (he is probably right).  These frequent and lengthy quotations only serve to add to the sense that the book is disjointed and itself "compiled" from many fragments.  Often enough, furthermore, Kugel ignores the title of the book and fails to tell us how to read the individual texts he is talking about.  At other points, however, he illuminates the Bible and provides helpful commentary on both the traditional and scholarly readings of key biblical texts.  He helps Christian readers to understand where their inherited interpretations of the Old Testament stand in relationship to the text and to later Jewish interpretations.

The central thesis of the book is that the traditional assumptions we have inherited concerning the meaning of the Hebrew Bible and the assumptions that scholars bring to that reading are in conflict.  He states, "These assumptions have essentially created two different Bibles, the ancients' and the moderns'." (p. 134)  The "central question of this book" is, "Which way of reading is the right one?" (p. 161)  Thus, the original "etiological narratives" of the Pentateuch, for example, were radically transformed by later generations of interpreters in ancient times.  Those narratives became "moral exampla" and "up-to-date guide[s] for daily life." (p. 362)  Kugel observes that, "the anonymous interpreters of the third and second and first centuries BCE changed utterly the whole character of the Pentateuch...No less formidable however, has been the activity of modern biblical scholars over the last two centuries." (p. 363) The scholars have undone the work of the ancient interpreters and once again made the Pentateuch into a collection of fragments.

In the course of his walk through the Hebrew Bible, Kugel pays particular attention to clues as to how the generations of editors assembled and reassembled the text until it reached its final form.  He also points to insights on various related matters, such as how the ancient Hebrews' understanding of God changed over time, the relationship of the Hebrew text to other ancient texts, the Christian understanding of the Old Testament, and even why Christians retained the Old Testament as a part of their scriptures.

Kugel, in a sense, saves the best to last.  His final chapter, "After Such Knowledge..." (pp. 662-689) brings together his questions and concerns about the impact of modern biblical scholarship on our understanding of the Bible—on his understanding of the Bible.  Modern scholarship has shown that the Bible is fragmented, self-contradictory, and a thoroughly human enterprise.  Modern scholars have "stripped the Bible of much of its special status." (p. 667)  He then comes to a crucial insight, namely that "what makes the Bible biblical is not inherent in its texts, but emerges only when one reads them in a certain way, a way that came into full flower in the closing centuries BCE." (p. 668, italics in the original)  At that time, the Bible began to be treated as wisdom literature, a compendium of divine truths, which in fact is the "real" Bible.  The real Bible, that is, is not found in the original fragments and snippets of which it has been woven.  The real Bible, the canon, is the body of interpretations with which it was read in ancient times long after it had been assembled.  The canon is text and interpretation, not just text.  Kugel closes with observations on what all of this means for Christian fundamentalists, Christian liberals, and Judaism, and at the very end of his reflections he concludes, apparently, that  in spite of the impact of modern scholarship on our understanding of the Bible, he must continue in faith to serve and have faith in the One served.  Those are my words, not his, but they capture I trust the sense he intended.  He admits that he brings us to the end of the tour with more of a whimper than a bang, but there it is, a Jewish biblical scholar's attempt to make the best of the realities of scripture as exposed by modern biblical scholarship.

For those who want to understand the Bible today and/or the challenges the world of science poses for people of faith, this is an excellent book.  Be patient with it.  Enjoy the way it wanders around.  Wait for the important insights.  Your time and patience will be rewarded.

Tippett, Einstein's God

A book review of Krista Tippett, Einstein's God: Conversations About Science and the Human Spirit (New York: Penguin Books, 2010).

Einstein's God is an excellent introduction into a new place that people of science and people of faith are beginning to discover, a place that puts behind us the science and religion debate.  In this book, science and spirituality occupy the same space in a way that is both comfortable and not so comfortable.  Most of the inhabitants of this new space have stumbled into it unexpectedly and some of them are still not sure that they really belong in it.  it is a place for thinking new thoughts and making connections between things that seem unrelated.  Residents tend to ask unsettling questions.  They reject cliches, prejudices, and what seems only commonsense to the world at large, be it the religious or the scientific world.

In Einstein's God, author/editor Krista Tippett has pieced together segments of interviews with leading scientists, thinkers, theologians, and her own reflections.  The result is a beautiful exercise in dialogue, which is one of the key habits of mind in the new place of spirituality and science that we are discovering.  Tippett frequently asks good questions as she probes the thinking of those she interviews.  She is always their friend, but she is constantly seeking to dig deeper into their thinking.  In the book the interface between Tippett and her guests isn't always seamless, and a somewhat slipshod editing job resulted in repeating material in her introductions to each chapter verbatim in her commentary in the chapters.  It is a minor flaw.

The book opens with reflections on Albert Einstein's understanding of God, which has sparked a good deal of debate and controversy in some quarters.  Tippett relies on scientists Freeman Dyson and Paul Davies to discern Einstein's belief in Something larger that inspires a religious awe in those who study the mysteries of the universe.  She includes this quotation from Einstein himself: "My religiosity consists in a humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit that reveals itself in the little that we, with our weak and transitory understanding, can comprehend of reality.  Morality is of the highest importance, but for us, not for God." (p. 40)  Einstein's unorthodox spirituality sets an important tone for the rest of the book.  It is a place for voicing unorthodox thoughts, as much scientifically unorthodox as theologically so.

A number of those Tippett includes in the book are medical scientists who are discovering that there is much more to us than our bodies.  They are finding that healing is as much about the human spirit as it is about muscles and tissue.  These scientists have come to realize that their medical and scientific training did not prepare them for the real realities of healing people.  Dr. Sherwin Nuland, for example, talks about the human spirit as being something greater than our consciousness that is a product of human evolution.  He speaks of the human spirit in almost religious terms and calls on religion and science to engage in conversations (a dialogue) for the sake of better understanding the human spirit (see p. 61).  Dr. Mehmet Oz, a surgeon, reflects on his experience of discovering the importance of faith and religion in healing.  He observes that as a physician, "I began to recognize that as dogmatic as I thought I could be with my knowledge base, there were certain elements of the healing process I could not capture.  And even if I was right in the science, I could be wrong in the spirit." (p. 74)

The book includes reflections on Darwin's views of religion and science, the contribution Hindu thought can make to understanding reality, and the implications of quantum physics for that understanding,  Janna Levin thus says that, "There are limits in quantum mechanics to how much we can ever really know.  There are fundamental limits to certainty." (p. 149)  Tippett's chapter on revenge and forgiveness, based on an interview with the psychologist Michael McCullough,  as much as any other points to the ways in which scientific and religious thinking intertwine in this new spiritual-scientific territory.  For McCullough, both revenge and forgiveness are important evolutionary strategies that are far more commonplace in our daily lives than we usually recognize.  He argues that we constantly exercise forgiveness as we "get along" with others, overlooking "occasional defects and mistakes." (p. 179)  McCullough is one of those who is convinced that we are slowly creating a better, more peaceful world.  The book also looks at the place of stress in our lives and the nature of depression.  All of this is timely, relevant to a better understanding of the world from a spiritual-scientific perspective.

Tippett concludes the book with a chapter "on the complementary nature of science and religion" with the short title, "Quarks and Creation," which features discussions with John Polkinghorne, physicist-theologian.  [See my review of Polkinghorne's Belief in God in an Age of Science (here).]  Covering a number of subjects including quantum physics as well as the possibility of life beyond death, Polkinghorne concludes that increasingly, "the science and theology conversation is getting more theological."  Theology is posing more of the important questions that both science and theology must grapple with including questions about the nature of humanity and about the possibility of "continuity between life in this world and the world to come."  He says, "And that's a healthy development.  You want the conversation to be very even-handed in that respect." (p. 279)  Polkinghorne's conclusion is evidently Tippett's as well, because she doesn't include a conclusion of her own.  Those are the last words in the text.  It is a hopeful, helpful conclusion: dialogue is taking place.  It is meaningful, honest, and respectful dialogue aimed at making sense of a mutual search for understanding and wisdom.

I highly recommend Tippett's Einstein's God to those who are concerned with the relationship of religious faith and science today.  It is one witness to the way in which religious values, attitudes, and perceptions are finding a new place in our scientific age.  It is also witness to a discovery more and more scientists are making at the boundaries of their fields of study, namely that there is Something beyond those boundaries that is as real as anything but not quite in ways that scientists have usually considered real.  Quantum physics, in particular, is having a truly humbling impact on the world of science.  Reality is so not like what scientists have thought it to be that more and more of them have had to acknowledge that science alone is incapable of comprehending What Is Becoming.  Einstein's God takes its readers to the place where humbled scientists and equally humble people of faith are seeking to better understand spirituality and that which lies Beyond and Within the human spirit.  This is a winner.