The best book I have read on making sense of the Bible so that its big story makes sense of life
This book feels like the book I have been looking for most of my Christian life. It is certainly one I have been looking for in my work as Bible teacher/pastor. I say this because I have often wanted to help people get an overview of the Bible’s big story and felt the need for an aid that was accessible to most people but of sufficient depth. Something that also showed how it was relevant to their lives and to the world we live in, without reducing it to a self-help guide or a treasury of inspirational thoughts for the day.
When I first started my Christian life I was helped by John Stott’s Understanding the Bible but that was more helpful on Bible background rather than its big story. I was certainly helped by God’s Big Picture by Vaughan Roberts a few years ago but it’s focus was on a brief survey and I wanted more depth. I’d still recommend both books. I even tried writing a short one of my own – no longer in print!
Ollerton’s book strikes exactly the right balance. He is clearly a good teacher whose aim is to make things clear to as many people as possible, being accessible and easy to understand for most general readers, and not assuming lots of prior knowledge. At the same time, he inspires us with the great story of the Bible, its soaring themes and central message that so powerfully address the human condition. It is not just an overview or survey of the Bible. It does what its subtitle states – it shows that the Bible is ‘a story that makes sense of life’. Ollerton does this without reducing the Bible to some kind of self-help compendium of life-hacks. Rather, he shows that the Bible’s big story speaks to the deepest longings of the human heart. There is nothing greater written that makes sense of life, and of the human story, than the Bible.
We are given insight into this purpose from the titles of its six main parts:
- Origins – our human desire for meaning
- Exodus – our human quest for freedom
- Exile – our human cry for peace
- Messiah – our human need for love
- Spirit – our human thirst for community
- Hope – our human longing for home
Along the way exploring these vital themes, the author shares some excellent insights, and some great quotes, especially from C S Lewis. My one criticism is that he sometimes resorts to preacher clichés (‘we don’t know what the future holds but know who holds the future’) but, to be fair, they may feel like clichés because they are so familiar to me. They are not clichés if you’ve not heard them before, I guess. And it’s a minor fault in what is an excellent book that does exactly what it sets out to do.
Andrew Ollerton is a theologian and popular communicator who works with the Bible Society. I will soon be reviewing the excellent Bible Course which he created and presents. He is a very clear and effective communicator.
This book is not the kind of book to do a summary of but I will use it to help me as I build up The Bible Tour resource and its support material. But I recommend you read this book. If you are still not convinced, see this introduction to it.
It is especially good for new Christians who really want to get to grips with the Bible. I’d also recommend it for people who have been Christians for many years but who have always struggled with reading the Bible apart from their favourite inspirational bits, and have wondered what to make of all the rest! Even seasoned Bible readers and Bible teachers will enjoy it, I am sure. I certainly did – there is always something new to learn and to be inspired by afresh.
If you’ve read it and enjoyed it, why not leave a comment below to tell us what you liked about it.
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