The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible - Ebook Detail

Why Can't I Just Be a Christian?' Parakeets make delightful pets. We cage them or clip their wings to keep them where we want them. Scot McKnight contends that many, conservatives and liberals alike, attempt the same thing with the Bible. We all try to tame it. McKnight's The Blue Parakeet has emerged at the perfect time to cool the flames of a world on fire with contention and controversy. It calls Christians to a way to read the Bible that leads beyond old debates and denominational battles. It calls Christians to stop taming the Bible and to let it speak anew for a new generation. In his books The Jesus Creed and Embracing Grace, Scot McKnight established himself as one of America's finest Christian thinkers, an author to be reckoned with. In The Blue Parakeet, McKnight again touches the hearts and minds of today's Christians, this time challenging them to rethink how to read the Bible, not just to puzzle it together into some systematic theology but to see it as a Story that we're summoned to enter and to carry forward in our day. In his own inimitable style, McKnight sets traditional and liberal Christianity on its ear, leaving readers equipped, encouraged, and emboldened to be the people of faith they long to be.
Reviews
I really enjoyed the book, and I'm glad that McKnight is one of those scholars who knows how to write for a popular audience. His style makes it apparent that he really cares about the church, and about how ordinary Christians understand Scripture. Reading the book actually reminded me a lot of conversations I had with professors at college.

Essentially, the book is about how to best read Scripture. As we read the pages of the Bible, we all come across these portions that don't fit into our normal understanding of things. McKnight calls these "blue parakeets." The question is then What should we do with these blue parakeets? Being conscious of the question is the first step toward taking Bible reading seriously. For instance, have you ever noticed how we usually disregard Paul's statements regarding men and long hair (1 Corinthians 11:14), but we take Paul's instructions regarding overseers in the church (1 Timothy 3:1-7; Titus 1:7-9) very literally? I think this book should be required reading alongside How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth during freshman Bible courses. Though the two books are very different, I believe they would complement one another nicely.

The second half of the book is a case study in one big blue parakeet. McKnight takes on the issue of women in church ministry. He walks the reader through what women actually did in the Old and New Testaments, and then presents a case for understanding Paul's commandments about women remaining silent in churches as a "that was for then" commandment. Though some will no doubt disagree with his conclusion, the exercise is valuable. In the end, I think McKnight walked a careful line, maintaining the understanding that Scripture is God's unchanging Word, while allowing for the possibility that well-established traditions regarding preferred ways of reading certain texts may be wrong. Again, some may not agree with McKnight's conclusions, but the journey is worth it.
Reviews
This book has NOTHING to do with reading the Bible properly! It puts a cultish spin on interpretation. If you are not a well-grounded Christian, stay away from this trash!
Reviews
I have been looking for a book like this, and, thanks to a friend's recommendation, I was able to get it. McKnight tackles some of the thorny questions Bible readers have been raising all my life, and there are no short answers. Witty, thought-provoking, and timely.
Reviews
I have really enjoyed other Scot McNight works, especially A Community Called Atonement and his blog. The writing style that McNight uses in The Blue Parakeet seems like he is trying too hard to be someone else. There are a lot of books in the world and so little time to read. Use your precious reading time on one of his other writing projects.
Reviews
The Blue Parakeet is another in a stack of published works that make a claim to Christian belief that is unsupported by the contents. This book uses feminist theology as its foil for argument, although it hints that the same proposed way we should read the Bible would yield changes in Christian perspective regarding other controversial topics, i.e. homosexuality. But the fundamental problem with McKnight's work here is that he believes Scripture should bend and twist to conform to changes in cultural norms over the course of human history. That belief is a problem because it is clearly not supported by any teachings found in the Bible, and because it leads to humanism. To McKnight and to anybody else who believes as he does, I can only say that it is OK for you not to be Christian if that is your desire, but don't mislead the innocent by claiming that what you are and what you believe is Christian. Just say you are a worshipper of humanity and human culture and let that be your religion; why the deception?

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