R. W. L. Moberly, noted English theologian, professor of theology and biblical interpretation at Durham University, and a priest in the Church of England, addresses the analogy between the role one accords to Christian Scripture and to the God of Christian Scripture in his most recent book. In The Bible in a Disenchanted Age, Moberly thus wrestles with questions such as should the Bible be studied by excluding one’s focus upon the God in the Bible while at the same focusing exclusively upon human dimensions? Should Christian scholars who believe that the God of the Bible is the one true God offer their justification for their disbelief in other ancient world deities? Related, should these scholars demonstrate how the manner of their study of the Bible corresponds with their belief in the God of the Bible (p. 29)?This book is primarily aimed at biblical scholars, theologians, priests, and pastors who teach the Bible as Holy Scripture and maintain a classic Christian position that the Bible should shape ones understanding of the world as a whole, as a corollary of having faith in God through Jesus (p. 21). Moberly wants his audience to grapple and consider their vocation and position with respect to the challenges posed by a prevailing postmodern sensibility, namely, skepticism and disenchantment with the Bible. Moberlys thesis presses the notion that an evidentialist approach (i.e., intellectual assent based on evidence) to belief in the God revealed in Bible is not the best launching point to engage postmodern challenges. Moreover, he argues this approach can distort the more important issues in this relationship (p. 7).Moberly defends his thesis with four chapters and provides a lengthy epilogue discussing biblical literacy. Throughout each chapter, the author compares and contrasts different elements of a case study drawn from Virgils Aeneid and the book of Daniel in order to argue his thesis. In the first chapter, Posing the Problem, Moberly notes how B. Jowetts perspective of treating the Bible like any other book and the established scholarly historical-critical approach have ironically undercut the Bibles status as Scripture and the source of ultimate truth and wisdom about God and humanity. Many orthodox Christian scholars and students employ these evidentialist approaches for Bible study without sufficiently accounting for why the Bible is unlike any other book. This neglect leads to a devalued and unprivileged character of the Bible and its content, and penetrating questions result: why bother to study these ancient documents rather than others? What makes the human words in Scripture in some sense the word of God? What is the analogy between the role one accords to the Bible and to the Bibles God?In ch. 2, Approaching the Bible, Moberly discusses two legitimate nonreligious ways to read the Bible to gain historical and cultural understanding and thus gain a measure of satisfaction. Reading the Bible as history and as a cultural classic text has great value for any secular or religious person who can utilize full imaginative seriousness. Among these two Bible-reading approaches, Moberly describes the historical-critical approach, the Bible understood as a cultural source, the Bible as a source of a continuing reception history, the Bible as a cultural heritage, and the Bible as a literary classic of the human condition. The author lucidly compares the texts of Aeneid 1 and Dan 7 and notes the similarities and differences through historical and cultural classic reading approaches; Moberly is able to depict the stark differences between the deities Jupiter and Yahweh and their implicational significance.In the next chapter, Towards Privileged Perspectives, Moberly thoughtfully demonstrates how the important approaches for Bible study described in chapter 2 might be combined with the dimension of faith contained in the historic Christian stance toward the Bible. Whether from a faith stance or not, everyone who studies the Bible chooses a privileged focus for understanding God and the world. The author states a Christian privileging of the Bible and of Jesus for understanding God and the world is not in principle different from the privileging of something else for understanding God and the world that people in general practice (p. 93). With great insight, Moberly describes several plausibility structuresthe social nature of knowledge, the authority, continual existence, and witness of the Catholic Church, and the canon of Holy Scripturethat greatly support the Christian perspective privileging Jesus and the Bible as the best focusing option. From his case study between Aeneid 1 and Dan 7, the author denotes competing visions of empire. Aeneid 1 elevates the value of limitless empire for Rome, whereas Dan 7 promotes an everlasting dominion for Yahweh and his representative and calls Gods people to a willingness to sympathize and identify with a small band of oppressed people who maintain that Gods mission will triumph in due course as part of Gods plan.In the final chapter, Towards Trust and Truth, Moberly brings his thesis to completion with a compelling argument as to why a person might believe the Bible to be more than simply human words. If the natural is to become supernatural, Moberly argues that Jesus in John 7:16 17 has provided the essential solution. A person must believe with a focused response to the whole person of Jesus certainly with a cognitive dimension but also in becoming like Jesus in what one does or seeks to do. The author states, unless heart and mind have a certain openness towards that which Jesus says and does, the issue of divine origin can only be a matter of mere words, a contestable and unverifiable claim (p. 138). Moreover, a person must exercise an empirical dimension of faith, not of the natural sciences, but of an existential engagement of a person. In the concluding epilogue, Moberly defines biblical literacy not as good general knowledge of biblical content but rather as an ability to read the biblical text well (pp. 17374). He provides several surprising examples from well-educated people who have read the Bible very poorly. The final section offers some hermeneutical guidelines for reading Scripture well.I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, and Moberlys discriminating thesis is well argued. In a few sections, I found myself wanting slightly more discussion. But in fairness to the author, this book was intended to initiate discussion and provoke reflection because the bulk of writing was created for lecture format. The author establishes himself as an insightful and incisive dialogue partner to anyone interested in the larger issues at stake regarding the authority of Christian Scripture. He has clarified some important hermeneutical issues, isolating and well demonstrating the importance of accounting for the world behind the text in historical-critical mode, the world within the text from literary and cultural perspectives, and the world in front of the text from reception history and plausibility structures. However, his climactic point, the necessity of reading the Bible as Scripture, brings his argumentation full circle and to a fitting synthesis. The orthodox Christian must incorporate belief, defined primarily as an openness and existential engagement with the words of Jesus, into his or her hermeneutic if the human words of the Bible are to become divine words of Christian Scripture.Moberly has provided a welcome gift to the primary audience, those orthodox Christians who serve vocationally as biblical scholars, theologians, priests, and pastors. His audience should thoughtfully implement the directives that address the depreciation of Christian Scripture in the current age founded on the premise that the Bible is only a complex human artifact that is in principle not distinct in kind from other human artifacts. If ones desire is to stay out of two current endemic ditchestreating divine revelation in Scripture as a trump card or viewing the divine and human dimensions of the Bible in competitive termsthis book will serve as a trustworthy guide.