BIBLE STORIES FOR ALL WITHOUT THE DOGMA

A retired teacher offers an introduction to the major stories and themes of the Old Testament geared toward non-Christians.

As an Old Testament teacher at a tuition-free Jesuit school that had a surprisingly large non-Roman Catholic and Muslim population, debut author Walsh developed lesson plans that “all of the students could identify with regardless of their religious background.” Now retired, he has compiled his lessons into a concise overview of the Bible that targets nonreligious readers interested in better understanding the book. In the author’s view, even among the nonreligious, one must have basic biblical literacy to fully understand Western society. Biblical references, for example, abound in Western literature, art, and music, from Handel’s Messiah to the Byrds’ “Turn, Turn, Turn.” The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s powerful speech “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” takes an even more poignant turn when readers understand the story of Moses’ mountaintop experience in Deuteronomy. The bulk of Walsh’s work walks readers through the major stories of the Old Testament in a straightforward, non-dogmatic way while providing brief historical and literary commentary for context. He also highlights important concepts and themes that run throughout the Old Testament that could be easily overlooked by those new to the Bible. For example, his reflections on the story of Cain and Abel introduce novices to the origins of the quote “Am I my brother’s keeper?” And the author emphasizes the biblical pattern of God favoring the younger son over the older in his discussion of Abraham. But while much of Walsh’s commentary will be useful to those unfamiliar with the Bible, some of it is trivia that doesn’t advance a deeper understanding of the work, such as an entire page of famous quotations about friendship by Aesop, Ben Franklin, and others. Surprisingly, given Walsh’s Jesuit school background, he does not include the Catholic and Orthodox books removed from the Bible by Protestants. A more thorough discussion of canonization history—and how Christians selectively picked which books to include in the Bible and which to leave out—would have been extremely valuable in this introduction.

An informative but sometimes-superficial survey of Old Testament stories.