The Blue Parakeet (2nd edition)
Book Review (Scot McKnight)
I picked this up because, well, I've read a variety of things by McKnight, but not any of his books. He's a New Testament scholar by trade, and this is a book whose main aim is to get you to rethink how you read the Bible. And, yeah, it's good.
Here's two big concepts that McKnight launches with. Firstly, everyone picks and chooses what they do with the Bible. Literally no-one is literally reading the Bible and literally obeying it. And the question that McKnight wants us to think about is how do we decide what we pick and choose. That is, how do we read the Bible, and why do we read the Bible that way, and then how ought we read the Bible. It's a set of questions to get us to acknowledge the lenses that we all have sitting on the end of our noses, pretending that we read the Bible without glasses on.
Second of his big concepts is Blue Parakeets. This is an illustration he draws from his life (in ch 2), which he applies as raising the question - a Blue Parakeet passage is one in the Bible that forces the question - is this 'for today' or 'for then'. E.g. Sabbath-keeping, foot-washing, charismatic gifts, etc etc.. All these kinds of texts ought to make us stop and think, and be aware that we are answering that question, even when we pretend that we're not. So let's be honest and actually tackle that question. The rest of the book falls into 5 parts.
Part 1: The Bible as Story
The first part of McKnight's thesis is that we need to learn to read the Bible as Story. Amen. He pitches this over and against other ways of reading: as lawbook, as a book of blessings/promises for each day, as a rorschach test, as a puzzle, and under the spell of Maestros. The overarching category for McKnight is that the whole Bible is telling one story, the story of God in relation to the world, and that this is a better way of reading than any of the others, and it also allows us to read individual parts of the Story/Bible as "the ongoing reworking of the biblical Story by new authors so they can speak the old story in new ways for their day." (p64). It respects diversity and development within the Canon, is what I would say.
And so to return to Blue Parakeets - when we encounter passages that raise the question of whether it is for then or now, we first set them in the context of their story, in the context of the Story.
I think there's a lot of value in McKnight's approach. It echoes and parallels other things I subscribe to, mostly a redemptive-historical reading of the arc of the Bible. I also particularly like the way he develops here a reading of "redemptive benefits" in terms of Eikons, oneness and otherness.
Part 2: Listening
I really like the way this part reorients us. McKnight takes to task one approach to the Bible, the approach that focuses on 'authority' and works with categories of "God, revelation, inspiration, inerrancy, authority, and submission". Now, to be fair, McKnight isn't saying that those things are right or wrong, just that focusing on them is missing the point. He instead argues for a relational approach to the Bible, where we are seeking to engage, hear, listen to, and love, the God who speaks through the Bible.
I can get aboard this train. Firstly, because wherever McKnight lands on those authority questions isn't relevant. Secondly, because one of the charges regularly raised against my theological context is 'bibliolatry', and I've come to think this charge is sometimes merited. There are people who are so nerdishly obsessed with the text of Scripture, and seem to have little true love for the one speaking through Scripture.
Thirdly, it simply is both more correct, more biblical if you will, to approach the Bible and listen to God as he speaks in the Scriptures, and engage God, than to approach the Bible and listen to the Bible and engage the Bible, neglecting the God who is in relationship and communication through the Bible. We are more to know God through the Bible, than to know the Bible as an end to itself. And in knowing God to love him.
Which is also why, I'd rather deal with a person who had a deficient doctrine of Scripture and loved God and obeyed his word, than a person who had a 'correct' doctrine of Scripture and was dogmatically unloving and disobedient to God.
Part 3: Discerning
The shortest part of the book, this picks out and re-highlights that we all pick and choose what to apply, and how to apply the Bible, but what we need to do is pay attention to the principles of how we pick and choose. McKnight discerns a number of principles of discernment here, which occur both within the canonical texts, and beyond.
Part 4: Reading as Story: 3 examples
He then goes on to apply these kinds of principles to three issues (Slavery, Atonement, Justice). This is kind of the 'worked examples' section of his book.
Part 5: Women in Ministry
If part 4 was three worked examples, part 5 is an extended case study in a contemporary and complex issue. I don't intend to review or engage McKnight's argument here, mostly because I think it's a far more complex topic than I would even like to engage in during a book review! But, in short, McKnight's view is an evangelical egalitarian position that all ministry roles are open to women and to be encouraged.
In summary, I found this an encouraging and challenging book, especially the section in part 2 on listening. It prompted me to think about how I relate to the Bible as text and communication, and to how I listen to God through scripture, in community and tradition. I was also encouraged to think more reflectively about the principles for interpreting and applying (or not) various parts of Scripture.