Disarming Scripture by Derek Flood

Derek Flood brings an interesting approach to comparing the Old Testament with the New Testament. It deserves to be read and critiqued.

I read Flood as a kind-of progressive revelationist: that God gradually reveals his will to humanity over time. (Kind of)

He speaks about reading Scripture with a sort of questioning fashion. He claims Jesus practiced this by looking at His Sermon on the Mount and how Flood interprets what Jesus said about Elijah in particular and others.

This book is blatently liberal in its approach to Scripture so if you're a fan of the "fresh/new/reimagined" interpretive fad going on in the book world, you'll dig into this book like candy corn.

If you are a fan of Scripture and enjoy to debate with ideas that differ from your own, you will also get a boost from reading this book.

If you are a fundamentalist Christian and have no desire to explore different ideas, you will be greatly bothered by some of the presentations inside.

Were the Israelites wrong in attacking all the "ites" of the Canaan world? Was Elijah wrong for calling down fire upon his enemies? Flood says Jesus said YES.

If you believe Jesus is the fullest example we have of God, then how do you reconcile his call to love enemies with the Old Testament's call to leave none alive?

This book attempts to answer that question in a fascinating way. I enjoyed reading it even if I didn't agree with everything Flood proposes.

This book was provided for review, at no cost, by Metanoia Books.