Free for All
Tim Conder and Daniel Rhodes
Baker Books, 2009, 254 pp., $16.99, Emersionbooks.com
For too long, biblical study has relied on either the authority-based teaching of Sunday morning, or stark individualism throughout the rest of the week. In Free for All, Tim Conder and Daniel Rhodes offer another solution, that of interpretation with the help of the church community.
Conder and Rhodes examine the different lenses by which we view the Bible, and note our biases and prejudices in coming to the text. They argue that by reading the Bible in community, we more rightly can understand it and its impact. Communal reading and interpretation offer room for better understanding, personal story, artistic expression, disagreement and wholeness. The authors also assert various habits that will come forth by studying the text in this way, including hospitality, ethics and mission. This book belongs in the many churches and communities that are asking questions of how to best interpret the biblical text.
