A Book about Us: The Bible and Stages of Our Lives

What does the Bible tell us about who we are? About what we were? About what we can be? While many people read the Bible only as literal truth or history, George F. Dole presents another way of interpreting the Word: by regarding it as a narrative about moral and ethical development of human life in general and of each individual life. Rather than only being a book about what God said to his people millennia ago, the Bible speaks in God's voice to each of us today, developing an on-going relationship between humanity and divinity that guides and empowers us on our journey through life. Beginning with birth, moving through adolescence with its attendant issues with authority and self-determination, traversing adulthood, accepting the rule of law and community with our fellow creatures, and finally arriving at our last destination, the Holy City, the human story is reflected in the struggles of the early Israelites and of the followers of Jesus. Seeing the Bible as the living Word, as a work that speaks to us in our time, can bring comfort and joy in a perilous world.