Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 144
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9¼
978-1-5381-2960-9 • Hardback • October 2019 • $44.00 • (£35.00)
978-1-5381-2962-3 • eBook • October 2019 • $41.50 • (£35.00)
Margaret Nutting Ralph, PhD, served the Catholic Dioceses of Covington and Lexington for thirty years. She was secretary of educational ministries for sixteen years and spent twenty-nine years as director of the MPS (Masters in Pastoral Studies) program for Catholics at Lexington Theological Seminary. Dr. Ralph is the author of eighteen books on scripture, including the best-seller, And God Said What? and the series, Breaking Open the Lectionary: Lectionary Readings in Their Biblical Context for RCIA, Faith Sharing Groups, and Lectors. Her work has been translated into Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Albanian, and Korean.
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Considering Context
2 Slavery Is Moral: Does the Bible Tell Me So? No
3 Women Should Not Vote: Their Place Is in the Home: Does the Bible Tell Me So? No
4 Jesus Loves Me: Does the Bible Tell Me So? Yes
5 God Created the World in Six Days: The Theory of Evolution Is Incompatible with Scripture: Does the Bible Tell Me So? No
6 Homosexual People Cannot Marry: Does the Bible Tell Me So? No
7 Divorce and Remarriage Is Always Wrong: There Are No Exceptions: Does the Bible Tell Me So? No
8 Christ Is Present in Eucharist: Does the Bible Tell Me So? Yes
9 Christ Established a Hierarchical Church: Does the Bible Tell Me So? Yes: But This Is a Partial Truth
10 Scripture Shows a Growing Interest in Mary: Does the Bible Tell Me So? Yes
11 Only Christians Can Be Saved: Does the Bible Tell Me So? No
12 The End Is Coming! The End Is Coming!: Does the Bible Tell Me So? Well, It Depends on What You Mean by “The End”
Postscript
Bibliography
Biblical Index
About the Author
With this book as their guide, readers—whether in local parishes or university classrooms—will be able to uncover a message of love and inclusion in even in the most difficult and contentious of topics.
— Reading Religion
Ralph addresses a clutch of compelling questions in the context of the Bible. . . Ralph finds evidence for her conclusions in the context of literary form; the beliefs at the time of the original author and audience; and the 2000-year process of ongoing revelation that is modeled in Scripture. Her thoughtful book will be of interest to contextualists, fundamentalists, and seekers of every persuasion.— Booklist
All Christians know that reading the Bible is important, but not many of us know how to do it. We pick and choose verses, post them on our social media, and use them to reinforce what we already believe. If scripture is to be a prophetic and transforming text for our age, we’ve got to learn to read in context—in the perspective of the literary form, the setting of ancient culture, the situation of the author’s world view, and the framework of God’s whole revelation. Explore the most hotly-contested biblical issues in our day by letting Margaret Nutting Ralph help you determine whether or not the Bible tells you so.— Stephen J. Binz, founder, Bridge-B.com
The concept and approach of this book are brilliant. In a clear, logical manner, Margaret Nutting Ralph makes a compelling case for reading scripture in context and cautioning the reader from discerning messages in scripture that were never intended. In doing so, she empowers the reader to discern rich meaning from scripture that she or he may have missed otherwise. — Leif Kehrwald, general editor, The Catholic Faith and Family Bible, Harper Catholic Bibles
Margaret Nutting Ralph is an excellent pedagogue who has the uncanny ability to help believers to appreciate both the importance and the limitations of scripture for Christian living today.— Charles E. Curran, Elizabeth Scurlock University Professor of Human Values, Southern Methodist University
Ralph’s a fixture in Central Kentucky’s Roman Catholic community and formerly served as a long-time academic at Lexington Theological Seminary, where she directed the seminary’s Catholic studies program.
Her dozen-and-a-half books, most or all of which are about the Bible, have been translated into multiple foreign languages. Several of her volumes remain fixtures on my own bookshelf. The concept of Does the Bible Tell Me So? is engaging. Ralph takes 11 controversial issues on which people often trot out the Scriptures to prove their point, and then discusses what the Bible actually says, and doesn’t, about those matters.
— Lexington Herald-Leader
This book may be a place to begin the study of some of the more problematic issues of belief and practice confronting believers today.
— The Bible Today