Book Review: No More Boring Bible Study

No more Boring Bible Study by Faith Womack

Introduction

I read this book in order to preview what Faith had to say before suggesting it to others who struggle with knowing how to study their Bible. I myself have a blog post about this over at my Bible journal blog (www.mywritelifeblog.com).  I've been watching Faith on her YouTube channel for several years, off and on, so I was already familiar with her and her view of scripture. She's a young wife and mother of 2 young children and a teacher of the Bible at that. She went to a Bible college and later even completed seminary school for her own continued study of the Bible. Her husband is a Pastor. Her YouTube channel has a lot of information and deals a lot with how she does Bible journaling which her book also addresses though not a main focus. 

What's in the book?

There are 16 chapters most are dealing with why we should study our Bibles and the correct way to do that. She deals with explaining to the reader why reading in the correct context is important. Context means the historical context of the time period as in what was happening at the time as well as who the author's audience was. She also explains in detail the different literary styles of how the text was written. Faith also explains hermeneutics and exegesis to some degree as these can shape our view on scripture, or our interpretations of the text. "When we neglect the context, we will often interpret a Bible verse to mean something it doesn't." (Page 9)

She speaks a bit about Bible translations that I think people will appreciate if they've never considered this before. "Each translation has been influenced by unique theological and even political ideas." (page 18) She includes a graph that may be useful for some to get an idea of how close different translations are to the origins of the text. She says translations attempt to balance accuracy and readability. 

Chapter 3, "Your New Reading Glasses" might be one of my favorite chapters. It's not because I learned anything new, it's because I had to, some years ago,  put on my new reading glasses. As in, I needed to view the Bible correctly without presuppositions. I especially appreciate her examples of how when we don't dig deep enough we are not seeing the big picture. She uses the example of Ruth (pages 34-36). She claims this book is beloved by women's Bible studies in so that women can learn how to have the loyalty of Ruth and compare themselves to Ruth. A study could have women asking where their Boaz is. Faith rightfully says that when you read "looking only for your application, you miss the message." She goes on to tell you what that is. 

I won't tell you what that deeper message is, you should pick up her book and read it. I will say that it will be about her over-arching message on how to read the Bible, and that is, the Bible is "the story of God redeeming his people for his glory". She says this many times and for good reason. That is exactly what the Bible is about. His story of redemption. (so I was in agreement with her there). 

There are chapters where she explains about the different literary techniques in how the writers wrote. "Our reading of the text can be transformed when we keep in mind the original author, the audience, and the historical moment the text was written for." (Page 76) She explains the problems, for example, of reading the text literally when we know there are symbolisms in the text. The Bible she would say by her chapter names is not just a history book, rule book, law book, or clue book. It's not a movie, or just a poem, or wise old sayings either. (chapter 10 is another of my favorite chapters) 

What do I think?

There is so much here it would be impossible for me to touch on everything Faith wrote. If you've never read the Bible or you've never read it with that framework of it being the story of God redeeming his people, then her book is for you. Even if you are a student of the Bible who reads faithfully to the text in context, you could benefit from picking up a copy of her book. I generally do not read books like this. I've read my fair share of women's Bible study books and the self-centeredness of them. This is not that. Faith actually steers you away from that sort of mindset. 

I enjoyed the book, but I didn't think I wouldn't, because I was already familiar with Faith from her YouTube channel. She gives a good deal of thought about why we should read the Bible under a lens of if being God's story, not our story, but that there are still applications there. She's explained in detail why it is so important to understand the who, what, when, and how of each book. That would be, who wrote it or to whom was it written, when did this take place, how did the author write it (what literary style) and  what can we learn about God. 

Would I recommend this book? Yes, in fact I sent a copy of it to my sister who has been interested in studying the Bible. This was why I purchased a copy for myself so that I could review it in the hopes it might help her in her own study. As I said previous, I have a Bible study blog of my own where I attempt to get into the deeper meanings of the scriptures and stay in the context. I didn't go to seminary school like Faith did, but my search for truth led me into deeper study and with different "reading glasses". And although I do not journal in my Bible the way Faith does, I do take a lot of notes in notebooks and in my Bible. Faith did a great job writing this and if she ever writes another book I'd probably buy that too.