The question of what the Bible is and how to read it has been much on the evangelical mind this year. The Bill Nye-Ken Ham evolution-creation debate, the release of Darren Arronofsky’s Noah, and most recently, the admission made by popular worship music artist Michael Gungor that he doesn’t read all of the primeval stories in Genesis 1-11 as “literal” accounts of historical events have highlighted how far we have to go in grasping what the Bible actually is, and how best to read it.
Gungor went seriously viral among evangelicals after he was accused this month of, as World magazine put it, “drift[ing] from biblical orthodoxy.” But what Gungor’s Christian critics may not realize is that when it comes to reading parts of the Bible non-literally, he’s not alone. In fact, historically and theologically speaking, Gungor is in great company.
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