Most non-Christians think that the Bible reduces to mere interpretation. So why do not more Christians focus on hermeneutics? This is a perennial question that needs to be resolved. Postmodernity, though not fully expressed yet, nevertheless is in full swing at the moment. In postmodernism, it seems, one literary item means one thing to one, and another thing to another. This situation was not the case with the Apostle Paul; rather, he postulated that there were both right ways and wrong ways to understand the Bible.

There are many joys of understanding the Bible correctly; for example, one can hear God’s voice directly; moreover, one can find the truth of the heavenly realm and how to get there; thirdly, one can find out what preoccupies God. This is a book that helps one to find the joy of the Bible, as well as how to understand the Bible. This is not a predefined, laid-out methodology of steps to take; rather, herein one learns principles to apply and thereby learn to do Bible study on their own. Do not leave it to the experts. One can and should do it for themselves.

Andrew Sach

Nigel Beynon

Reading the Bible is both a science and an art. As a science, it is both rigorous and disciplined. As an art, it is something you learn by doing, almost as if by catching something. Each chapter of this small book introduces you to a separate tool of Bible study and explains how it works. At the end of each chapter, there are “dig deeper” exercises that allow one to practice using the tools oneself. The authors deem the Bible a “divine book” (18). Moreover, they contend that one needs God’s Spirit within them in order to interpret and apply the Word in today’s environ. However, the Bible is also a human book; so then, we need to recognize that the Bible was written in a particular time, by particular people, and for particular circumstances. God speaks to us, though, through their particularity.

In applying the principles in this text to Biblical interpretation, one needs to keep in mind the purpose, context, structure, linked words within and beyond the text, vocabulary, tone and feel, repetition, inner textual allusions, genre, and the implications from the text. Herein, one finds suggestions to do just this. I would unhesitantly recommend this title for those Christians who desire to understand the Bible better, and thereafter apply it in their lives.

Reviewed by Bradford McCall

Publisher’s page: https://www.crossway.org/books/dig-deeper-tpb/

Dr. Biggar is Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at Oxford University. Although too young to remember WWII, his childhood memories were filled with stories from relatives and neighbors of the “good war” that England fought to prevent the unspeakable evils of Nazi world domination. His approach to the moral issues of war is that of Augustine’s “just war” tradition.

For the sake of full disclosure, I have been solidly behind the Augustinian “just war” theory since childhood, before I knew the term. Like Dr. Biggar, I grew up in the 1950s, in awe of our veterans, assured that the war against Nazism was indeed honorable and justified. I also accepted that the wars against Communisms were “just wars.” I joined the Army during the Vietnam War and served in the 101^st Airmobile Division in a civil affairs unit. Although the Vietnam War ended in defeat, I have always considered it an honorable part of the war against communism. In this regard I am in kinship with Dr. Biggar’s assault on “Christian pacifism,” including the many critics of the Vietnam War.

William De Arteaga with children in Vietnam.

Dr. Biggar’s book consists of an introduction, seven chapters and a brief concluding section. The chapters originated from various articles and lectures the author has given over the past decades. The introduction is subtitled “Against wishful thinking,” and together with chapter one, “Against Christian pacifism” counters the opinion, widely popular in university settings, that pacifism is the default setting for the Christian. Biggar deals with various Christian authors who are pacifists and systematically counters their arguments. Among Christian pacifist theologian examined are Richard Hays, John Howard Yoder and Stanley Hauerwas. Hauerwas is given particularly severe criticism, as his views on war are short on scriptural analysis and heavy with his left wing political assumptions.

Biggar concludes this section:

Each of the pacifists under consideration assumes that violence is all of one piece. They do not distinguish violence that is well motivated, rightly intentioned, and proportionate from that which is not. Nor do they distinguish anger from vengeance and hatred. …
When our conceptually indiscriminate Christian pacifists turn to the New Testament and read that Jesus repudiated some kinds of anger and violence, they assume that he must have repudiated all kinds …

Such an understanding of Jesus’ social ethics stand prima facie in contradiction of Paul’s affirmation of the divine authorization of sword bearing in the 13^th Chapter of his Epistle to the Romans (p. 59).

Chapter two is entitled, “Love in War.” It records stories of soldiers acting with righteousness and kindness in war situation. A moral soldier can “…regard their enemies with respect, solidarity, and even compassion – all of which are forms of love” (p. 91).