IS HEAVEN A PLACE?

A book that argues for presenting biblical miracles as metaphors.

Fratianne (co-author: What Has Prayer Got To Do With Anything, Anyway?, 2018, etc.), an emeritus professor of Surgery at Case Western Reserve University, encourages a modern approach to Scripture that will fit readers’ 21st-century experience. First, he argues that Jesus’ purpose was to teach the essence of God’s love—and that this love should be replicated and shared among all of humanity. Early on, the author notes that he was shaped in many ways by a strict Catholic upbringing, and he believes that sermons on sin and punishment only push people away from the church: “No wonder, when we grow up, so many people turn away from the Church when they are made to feel they were created to be a bad person.” Secondly, Fratianne urges the church to move past supernatural explanations for biblical stories, which he often equates with “magic.” Instead, he believes that they should be taught as metaphors. For instance, he says that he believes that Moses didn’t see an actual burning bush but that he had no other words to describe what his mystical experience felt like. Likewise, Jesus did not literally feed masses of people with a few fish and loaves of bread, the author says; instead, the people felt full and satisfied due to his teachings. Fratianne’s tone is approachable and caring—at various points, for example, he references his own experience as a burn specialist while pointing out the importance of love, patience, and hope toward recovery as well as the commitment of caregivers from all traditions—and his message will likely be welcomed by some progressive Christians. Traditionalists, however, may cringe at his treatment of Scripture at times. For example, he presents the resurrection of Jesus in metaphorical terms—Jesus is resurrected in the hearts of believers as they follow him, he says. As for the title, heaven, he says, isn’t a place but “a state of being, centered on the presence of the Holy Spirit within us.”

A potentially controversial approach to the Bible.