The Story: The Bible as One Continuing Story of God and His People… (2005 original; edició 2011)

Brazenly, and inexcusably self-hyped, as "the grandest, most compelling story of all time", this re-writing of the Christian Canon is an exercise in the use of a Grand Narrative as a whip. It crackles with fear and snaps with false hopes.

The Bible serves as a collection plate. This moistening of the "story" will add heft to many a call to "give to the Lord". Even this book does not claim that God has ever received a dime of all the tithing.

While far from an accurate "translation" of received text, this work translates ancient translations into a meaningful Story. Reading the Bible is, after all, almost never done any more if it ever was. Today, at least we have this Story reduced to a text which can be read in a few sittings. The "books" of the Christian Bible are artfully spun (dropping the perplexities) and linked together with "short transitions"--which are additions made to the sanctus. See TheStory.com.

The volume features selections of the NIV Bible in chronological (and artificial) arrangement unrelated to any archeological evidence or actual chronology. Includes very helpful "Time lines" of the stated events, and a Cast of Characters. For example, "Adam: The first man, husband of Eve"--although they never married or swore vows. And "Adam sinned when he ate fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil." Never a hint as to why eating a fruit is a sin, or how fruit imparts knowledge, or why knowing about good and evil creates a burden upon descendants. Clearly this "Story" consists entirely of myth and metaphor. How good a story is it?

Is there a single "Character" in it worthy of emulation?

I use this volume to help me understand the perplex riddles of Christian Holy Scripture--which this edition simply skips. Millenia of literary traditions are traduced into "the truth"--come down to this message: "Jesus, God's son, came, lived, died and rose again." [471] The text assumes that you have a choice--to be somehow made at no known place or time--to step down "the narrow path that leads to unimaginable glory". The conceit of this vision is awesome. "Discussion Questions" are provided for each of the 31 Chapters.

The Publisher chose to print on self-destructing acidic paper. Surprised? ( )

Wow...just wow. I'd heard/read many of these stories, but surprisingly never put it all together. It was great.

Make no mistake, this is not the Bible or a bible replacement. It is a very good representation of the Bible and connecting each of the stories.


I was someone disappointed with stories it didn't cover. I know you can't cover everything, but no Jonah, Job, book of James, or 1 John...etc. (lots of J's oddly). Would have liked to have seen those.
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Excerpts from the NIV, interspersed with italicized comments by the commentators. This wasn't as gripping as The Book of God, which purported to be the same thing, a readable novel-like version of the Bible. ( )

Might be good for someone that has never read the Bible. Passages not marked off as to where they came from in the Bible.

My home church committed to working through this book in the year 2015. So, in January, our Pastor started following the outline of stories for most of his sermons over the course of the year, and our small-groups followed up and discussed the corresponding chapters (and his sermons) during the week that followed. The book was a great introduction to the core stories of the bible -- and for a church like ours, and a small group like mine, where many people are new to engaging with their faith (either cause they are so new to it, or they grew up in traditions where scripture knowledge was not prioritized), it was incredibly helpful. The book hit the core stories that many know in odd incomplete ways from pop culture and pop religion, but exposed them to the real, complete story as in scripture. Then followed up with good discussion questions. In our group we also used a companion video that was very helpful for kicking the discussion off.

(2015 Review #5)