Book Review: Is the Bible Intolerant? By Amy Orr-Ewing

Date September 15, 2006 Posted by Roger Overton

The past few centuries of criticizing the Bible has resulted
in a culture that generally mistrusts the authenticity and authority of the
Bible. Even many Christians are willing to accept that the Bible contains
errors. This mistrust is often a stumbling block in evangelism since the Gospel
depends on the Bible being God’s inspired Word. In Is the Bible Intolerant?
apologist Amy Orr-Ewing tackles the ten most common objections to the Bible.

Mrs. Orr-Ewing begins with the most postmodern objection-
“Isn’t it all a matter of interpretation?” She analyzes contemporary language
(mostly through Foucault) and describes reader responsibility through proper
interpretation. The next challenge addressed is similar- whether history is
something we create or something we learn. 

These two issues set the foundation for directly addressing
the Bible. Mrs. Orr-Ewing looks at whether the biblical manuscripts are
reliable, whether their content is reliable, why we hold only to the
traditional 66 books of the Bible, and how the Bible compares to the scriptures
of Islam and Hinduism. She also looks at the Bible’s view of women, war, and
sex. The final chapter asks the question: “How can I know?” After sharing her
testimony, she explains that we can know Jesus because God has revealed Him to
us.

There are a couple of points that detract from this
otherwise great book. One is that readers unfamiliar with the philosophic
discussion of postmodernism will likely not easily grasp some of the points in
the first chapter on matters of language. Apart from the section, though, the
book is incredibly beginner friendly. The other point is that in her discussion
on the Bible’s view of women, Amy Orr-Ewing offers some less than accurate
portrayals of the biblical data and contemporary views of it. For example, she
states “God is predominantly spoken of with male imagery.”(97) This is a real
understatement since the Bible describes God with more than just male imagery;
it describes Him with male language almost universally.

These points are small exceptions to a book that does
an excellent job introducing readers to a variety of issues while providing
helpful answers to difficult questions. Weighing in at only 127 pages, Is
the Bible Intolerant? should be the first choice for those seeking quick
answers about challenges against the Bible.

Related posts:

  1. Book Review: Whatever Happened to Truth?
  2. Book Review: A Case for Amillennialism by Kim Riddlebarger
  3. Book Review: Philosophy Made Slightly Less Difficult
  4. Book Review: Choosing a Bible by Leland Ryken
  5. Book Review: God's Blogs by Lanny Donoho
  6. Book Review: Sex and the Supremacy of Christ ed by. John Piper and Justin Taylor

Category Posted in Apologetics, Book Reviews, Main Page, Roger's Posts

3 Responses to “Book Review: Is the Bible Intolerant? By Amy Orr-Ewing”

  1. Anonymous said:

    September 15th, 2006 at 4:35 pm

    As I was reading your post, I thought the name sounded familiar. I remembered seeing her name on bethinking.org. Anyone interested in the book could checkout some of her other work.

  2. Anonymous said:

    September 15th, 2006 at 6:59 pm

    I used to not like the name Ewing, because I didn't know how to pronounce it. I had a book by somebody whose last name was Ewing, and I purposely avoided talking about that book because I couldn't pronounce her name.

  3. Anonymous said:

    September 16th, 2006 at 11:05 pm

    Amy Orr-Ewing is on staff with the UK office of Ravi Zacharias' ministry: The Zacharias Trust. On the website you'll find some great free articles and mp3s by her, and others.

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