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Reading the Bible with the Damned
Exploring the challenges that both the churched and the unchurched have faced regarding giving and receiving the word of God, Bob Ekblad encourages us all to learn to read the Bible together as a whole. In this compelling book, he reflects on how Christians have often found it difficult to proclaim God's good news to every realm of society, while those who have needed it most have frequently deemed themselves unworthy due to social circumstances or sinfulness. In Reading the Bible with the Damned, Ekblad offers concrete advice on how to bridge this gap through a variety of insights ultimately leading to spiritual transformation. This book is full of examples of how Scripture changes lives for those who attend Bible studies and for those who lead them, offering practical suggestions on many passages from the Old and New Testaments.
208 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2005
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402 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
February 13, 2009
This book sat on my shelf for a long time before I got into it -- and then it gripped me. It was not what I expected. Ekblad is a guy with a PhD who spends his time visiting illegal Mexican immigrants in Skagit County jail and introducing them to God's love through Bible studies. The book is his journal of those encounters, allowing us to experience how he cuts through the baggage of church ritual, Christianese, and traditional interpretations to mine the essential meaning from basic Bible stories in Genesis and the Gospels in ways that are relevant to the marginalized. He gave me fresh ways to understand truths of scripture -- transformational! I recommend it for anyone who wants to see the Bible message through new lenses.
February 23, 2016
A brilliant, illuminating and challenging book which documents the author's experience of reading the Bible with people on the margins of society. We're taken through a variety of different Biblical genres and see how orthodox theology is transfigured and enriched by allowing the dispossessed and alienated to interact with the text on their own terms. Important reading for anyone who claims to be taking the Bible seriously, this will be especially valuable for those whose task it is to open Scripture amongst those on the margins.
December 19, 2025
In short, this is a book of stories from conducting Bible studies with outsiders of our world — poor villagers in Central America, migrants detained for deportation, drug addicts, white American criminals — and how the author, Bob Ekblad, handles those studies. In addition to recounting details from the studies themselves, he shares some quite real, quite poignant stories from the lives of his participants, stories that are brutal and frustrating and heartbreaking.
When our small group began reading this book, it was b/c it had been referenced in our church, but the first few chapters in we weren't sure what to make of it. My thought is that enough people — maybe Ekblad's students or participants in his Bible studies or ministry — told him that he should write a book about how he conducts his studies, that he finally went ahead and wrote about it. And I'm glad he did.
More conservative readers might be concerned about the liberation lens through which he conducts most of the referenced Bible studies. But it seems clear to me that to Ekblad, for people who have been saved through faith not through works, the Gospel message should primarily be a message of liberation and deliverance. And sadly much of the teaching of this world and even its churches is not that. They teach instead that you get what you deserve and that if you were actually "worthy" then you would already be blessed, and comfortable, and rich. Your place of addiction, pain, discomfort and patterns of crime and/or abuse are confirmation that a life of freedom and light is not for you. Ekblad dispels those beliefs in the way he reads and interprets scripture with his fellow Bible study participants.
With this book being mainly glimpses into Ekblad's Bible study sessions, I can say this book would be *good* for many, perhaps most, American Christians to read but they could get the idea so to speak through reading only a couple chapters or so. This book is more relevant I think for people who do ministry than lay-people as a whole. But if anyone has read this and disagrees I'd be open to hearing why!
When our small group began reading this book, it was b/c it had been referenced in our church, but the first few chapters in we weren't sure what to make of it. My thought is that enough people — maybe Ekblad's students or participants in his Bible studies or ministry — told him that he should write a book about how he conducts his studies, that he finally went ahead and wrote about it. And I'm glad he did.
More conservative readers might be concerned about the liberation lens through which he conducts most of the referenced Bible studies. But it seems clear to me that to Ekblad, for people who have been saved through faith not through works, the Gospel message should primarily be a message of liberation and deliverance. And sadly much of the teaching of this world and even its churches is not that. They teach instead that you get what you deserve and that if you were actually "worthy" then you would already be blessed, and comfortable, and rich. Your place of addiction, pain, discomfort and patterns of crime and/or abuse are confirmation that a life of freedom and light is not for you. Ekblad dispels those beliefs in the way he reads and interprets scripture with his fellow Bible study participants.
With this book being mainly glimpses into Ekblad's Bible study sessions, I can say this book would be *good* for many, perhaps most, American Christians to read but they could get the idea so to speak through reading only a couple chapters or so. This book is more relevant I think for people who do ministry than lay-people as a whole. But if anyone has read this and disagrees I'd be open to hearing why!
November 21, 2023
Super-interesting book as Ekblad explores reading the Bible from the perspective of the prisoner and undocumented immigrants and all "criminal aliens". So often we read the Bible as Christians ... saints who want to be saintlier ... without recognizing the need for God's grace in our own lives. I thought this was so touching and needful. I hope to read it again sometime - if for nothing else, as a reminder that Jesus came for all sinners, and that includes me.
June 9, 2021
Back in the day, Jesus was criticized by the reputable folks for eating with tax collectors and sinners. He countered that those were the people he came to help. Over the centuries, Jesus' followers tend to keep forgetting that lesson and we start making distinctions between the "good" folks and the "bad" ones. Dr. Ekblad has ministered to those who seem to fall into today's "disreputable" category: campesinos in Honduras, inmates in the Skagit County Jail, and migrant workers in Washington State. As a man who fits into none of these categories, he has been surprised as he shares the scriptures with these folks. Their experiences lead them to bring unique presuppositions about the Bible and God to their studies, as well as unique insights into the text. Dr. Ekblad shares some of these with the reader, as well as his attempts to demonstrating how he tries to draw out the good news of God's love for people who are tempted to think it's not for them.
I think this is the first book of "liberation theology" that I've read and I find I can't fully embrace it. Given my own Lutheran tradition and beliefs, I can't so easily lay aside the words of law and judgment that the Bible contains, as Dr. Ekblad seems to do. However that doesn't negate the words of grace that were written for the damned, or the love of God that is for each one of us.
I think I need to get a copy of this one on my shelf.
I think this is the first book of "liberation theology" that I've read and I find I can't fully embrace it. Given my own Lutheran tradition and beliefs, I can't so easily lay aside the words of law and judgment that the Bible contains, as Dr. Ekblad seems to do. However that doesn't negate the words of grace that were written for the damned, or the love of God that is for each one of us.
I think I need to get a copy of this one on my shelf.
July 24, 2012
Attention all seminary and Bible school students. If you read one more book on hermeneutics after taking courses on it, make it Ekblad's. Though a little rough around the edges (he does, after all, quote verbatim some conversations he had with inmates while studying the Bible with them), this work is a MUST read for anyone hoping to properly handle the Word of Truth here in North America. Fantastic read--among my all time favourites.
January 1, 2018
Bob Ekblad offers an organic way to approach the Bible with migrant workers, prisoners and other people on the margins. The book is largely what he has uncovered in the scriptures along with the people he serves in ministry. New discoveries and theologies are formed as the Word becomes “liberation for the not yet knowing.” (Ekbald 2005. 9)
The book is full of anecdotal stories of his bible studies with people. Upon closer inspection, his approach to bible studies is his practical approach to social justice itself. For Ekblad they are all one and the same. To love those on the margins is to allow them to find themselves in light of God. “I see myself as one who works to bring people together in as safe a place as possible for a potential encounter: a meeting between individuals and God that may result in comfort, conversion, healing, a change of heart, call, hope, and transformation.” (Ekblad 2005 5). It is through this transformational process, as they see all that God has created in them and for them that they are empowered to choose love. This transformed identity can heal wounded hearts, restore families and give new purpose to lives that once felt hopeless.
For Ekblad, his position is to help facilitate what God is already doing in the other person, “I am an unknowing midwife at best – unaware of what the encounter will birth.” (Ekblad 2005. 5). The significant thing to note here is that for Ekblad, transformation from below happens when we, the ministers, humble ourselves to the other and to God to just facilitate divine revelation. This is very different then coming to the marginalized and just telling them or giving them exactly what the minister thinks they should know or have. Practical social justice must allow for a God inspired “a ha” moment between God and God’s beloved, particularly for those who have not had the freedom.
Having come out of the suburbs of Seattle himself, Ekblad believes mainstream culture and the marginalized need each other. Ekblad operates with an understanding that mutual relationships bring life. Ekblad’s approach to the marginalized feels almost dangerous. He allows for so much theology from below that mainstream Christian culture may feel the impulse to close in and protect itself. Theology from below, theology from those who are not schooled in the European classic theologians, for that matter theology from those who are not schooled much at all in any discipline, seems out of control. The significance of Ekblad’s approach is that is out of control of the mainstream agenda and in complete control of God and the God’s beloved.
The book is full of anecdotal stories of his bible studies with people. Upon closer inspection, his approach to bible studies is his practical approach to social justice itself. For Ekblad they are all one and the same. To love those on the margins is to allow them to find themselves in light of God. “I see myself as one who works to bring people together in as safe a place as possible for a potential encounter: a meeting between individuals and God that may result in comfort, conversion, healing, a change of heart, call, hope, and transformation.” (Ekblad 2005 5). It is through this transformational process, as they see all that God has created in them and for them that they are empowered to choose love. This transformed identity can heal wounded hearts, restore families and give new purpose to lives that once felt hopeless.
For Ekblad, his position is to help facilitate what God is already doing in the other person, “I am an unknowing midwife at best – unaware of what the encounter will birth.” (Ekblad 2005. 5). The significant thing to note here is that for Ekblad, transformation from below happens when we, the ministers, humble ourselves to the other and to God to just facilitate divine revelation. This is very different then coming to the marginalized and just telling them or giving them exactly what the minister thinks they should know or have. Practical social justice must allow for a God inspired “a ha” moment between God and God’s beloved, particularly for those who have not had the freedom.
Having come out of the suburbs of Seattle himself, Ekblad believes mainstream culture and the marginalized need each other. Ekblad operates with an understanding that mutual relationships bring life. Ekblad’s approach to the marginalized feels almost dangerous. He allows for so much theology from below that mainstream Christian culture may feel the impulse to close in and protect itself. Theology from below, theology from those who are not schooled in the European classic theologians, for that matter theology from those who are not schooled much at all in any discipline, seems out of control. The significance of Ekblad’s approach is that is out of control of the mainstream agenda and in complete control of God and the God’s beloved.
June 19, 2023
Life affirming and liberative reading of scripture. Inspiring theology from the experiences of some of the most marginalised people in prison. Bob Ekbald through his story telling style gives insight and inspiration into liberative bible study methods that lead to encounters with the living Lord. In doing so he takes the reader through a reappraisal of dominant theologies towards fresh readings of the words through the contexts of imprisonment and poverty. Equally moving and challenging.
May 24, 2018
A provocative and moving account of Scripture's good news for the imprisoned and impoverished. Ekblad is a dynamic interpreter of biblical narrative, and he's a thoughtful teacher as well. I've been reading this book as a resource for my own ministry to inmates and parolees, but it would be no less valuable and illuminating for any preachers, teacher, or Bible study leader.
July 11, 2019
The writing is a little clunky and jumps around, but five stars for the challenging readings of the Bible that Ekblad presents. As we look at ministry on the margins, these readings that challenge the dominate theologies offer new hope, life, and grace. I'm excited to explore more some of the Bible studies he shares and to use this lense as I minister in my context.
March 31, 2020
My ONLY knock on this is that I wish it were longer, and included more Bible stories and examples from throughout the canon. I think Ekblad hit publish a few chapters too early. I'm looking forward to a second read on this. Really loved this otherwise.
May 29, 2020
Brilliance. With humility, grace, and passion, Ekblad invites the voices of the marginalized to the discussion. Their voices bring a much-needed perspective to the table, reminding us that at the very heart of God is an unapologetic passion and care for the outsider.
August 27, 2018
Excellent.
January 19, 2024
Ekblad does bible studies with men in prison, then often with them, their friends, and family when they leave prison. These are their stories recounting memorable moments in those studies.
August 22, 2008
This book basically the authors record of a bunch of bible studies he did with poor south American laborers and jail inmates in the states. He approaches the bible studies as opportunities to practice liberation theology. He basically argues that everyone who reads the bible interprets it for themselves to some degree, and that most standard interpretations and come from a well-educated, privileged minority. In the author's bible studies he leads and encourages alternative interpretation of scripture that break down the walls that separate the poor and oppressed from the heart of scripture and God.
Any reader must be ready for some very different interpretations of some scriptures. It is an exciting book for anyone striving to open scripture up more fully to the oppressed.
In all of these ways I loved the ideas the book is founded upon. However reading through the whole book can be a bit tedious.
Any reader must be ready for some very different interpretations of some scriptures. It is an exciting book for anyone striving to open scripture up more fully to the oppressed.
In all of these ways I loved the ideas the book is founded upon. However reading through the whole book can be a bit tedious.
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February 3, 2016I loved this book because the author confirmed something that I have been coming to believe for some time now. The Bible is often misused by the powerful and affluent - those on the top side of a society, and yes, even among the religious. The truth is that most of the content of Scriptures is to remind "the damned" that God is with them and that things are not always as they seem.
If you are like me, a suburban American Christian whose life has been mostly blessed, this book will be a challenge. But if you read it you will come away with a greater theology and eyes more open to the movement of the Kingdom of God.
If you are like me, a suburban American Christian whose life has been mostly blessed, this book will be a challenge. But if you read it you will come away with a greater theology and eyes more open to the movement of the Kingdom of God.
March 19, 2009
Great book. I would almost say a must-read for those leading Bible studies. An Eckblad quote:
"In my preaching and teaching I envision my role as that of a facilitator and midwife…. As midwife I assist during the birthing process recognizing that the work is done by the Spirit in intimate communion with people in the depths of their beings. I seek to be present as appropriately as possible—getting out of the way or intervening when necessary. I set up the birthing room as it were, making sure that the interpreting process gets off to the best start with a given group and text…"
"In my preaching and teaching I envision my role as that of a facilitator and midwife…. As midwife I assist during the birthing process recognizing that the work is done by the Spirit in intimate communion with people in the depths of their beings. I seek to be present as appropriately as possible—getting out of the way or intervening when necessary. I set up the birthing room as it were, making sure that the interpreting process gets off to the best start with a given group and text…"
June 16, 2007
I gave this book four stars only because the writing style is sometimes pedestrian. But I'm beginning to re-think that position. This book is the clearest, most compelling, most surprising window into the God of the Bible that I've ever encountered, and also a picture of faith and justice that is winsome and rare--on either side of the liberal/conservative theological/political divide. Reading it, we see Jesus, and it is good.
February 5, 2009
Bob Ekblad has for years been offering Bible study and prayer at a local jail--this is an account of some of what he experiences and a lot of what he has learned from the most marginalized people around. A life-changer.
November 6, 2007
I bet this is Jesus' favorite book next to the Torah.
January 29, 2011
I really thought this was a great book. Very insightful. I didn't agree with all his ideas, especially in areas of honesty, but his perspective was interesting, inspiring and convicting.
January 12, 2013
It's a little hard to read, but the basic message is that you can be the biggest sinner in the world and God can call you for greatness. I loved the parts where he was meeting with the inmates.
January 18, 2016
Ekblad has spent his life his life reading the Bible with inmates, illegals, and undocumented persons in Washington. Very powerful book.
November 11, 2008
This is a great book which explores how to read the bible with people who have been marginalized.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews