Starting a Bible Literacy Journey

A thought has been needling my brain over the last couple of years and I have yet to do anything about it. So, what better day than today to Start A Bible Literacy Journey? I used the word Journey so you could know that I am 100% qualified to speak on the subject of the Bible. (That was a joke, you can laugh.)

Foundation: I am a reader. I read a wide variety of genres and enjoy learning through the process of words. It makes the most sense to me. I am also a student of theology and the Bible. Through undergrad and grad school studies in both, I have done a lot of reading on the subjects. Not only that, but I have continued in my study and reading in the areas of Christianity, theology and the Bible. (Note that this does not in any way mean I am declaring I'm super spiritual by default. I mean, just because you read a ton on Carving a Decoy doesn't mean you're an expert at actually crafting a decoy... But we'll talk more about that later!)

Thought: I love recommending books! It's my thing. It makes me happy. I get asked what books I'd recommend on the Bible and theology. In fact, a young adult friend of ours recently stated that he felt he was lacking on actually knowing the Bible and reacted well to me saying I'd love to have a "library"/bookshelf of sorts on here to recommend books he could read to help with learning on the subject. My goal is to offer suggestions that are surveys (introductions), and ones that are a bit deeper and go further into the subjects.

Therefore:

-My goal is to begin a page on here suggesting books or articles or even podcast/YouTube links that you can research for yourself and pick and choose what interests you in reading and learning more about the Bible.

-Theologically, I don't declare myself part of any one camp - I find they each have problems, which shouldn't surprise us. A manmade system or framework set over the Holy Bible will never fully live up to the perfection or the depth of who God is to us. I find people who do tie themselves so closely into any particular camp to be annoying (nicest word I could think of) and frequently sat in the back row of every class ever so I could read other books while the "theobros" argued over stupidly small theology issues.

-My main point here is studying the Bible. You can deduct from that statement that I DO believe in the inerrancy of Scripture and fully believe the Bible to be the living and active word of God.

My main categories will be (although this is still in development - unlike the canon of the Bible...heh, heh):

The Story of Scripture: Can you give an overview of the entire Bible? What would you say the overarching storyline is?

Bible: Where did our Bible come from?

Studying the Bible: How To

General Bible Commentaries, Dictionaries and Atlas

Old Testament:

Individual Books, Genres, Theology of

New Testament:

Individual Books, Genres, Theology of

-My goal would be two-fold:

One: You could - if you chose - walk through a study of the Bible beginning to end.

Two: Or you could jump in and choose a book that pertains to a book you are interested in studying, or a subject you've always wanted to learn more about.

For now, these will show up in posts, but I hope to create a page where it's listed in a more organized format. Ready to get started? Begin here: Bible Literacy Library: A Bible, Dictionary & An Atlas

What can you do? Comment below, email me (info@bsidebecca.com) to let me know what subjects or areas of the Bible you'd be interested in having recommendations for!