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From Stone to Living Word: Letting the Bible Live Again
Many Christians sense that their encounters with the Bible are supposed to be deep, life-forming, and powerful, but that isn't always the case. They may be overly familiar with the text to the point of finding it predictable, or they may be disillusioned with the church. Too often, and for a variety of reasons, believers make the Bible an idol and unwittingly turn the Word into stone.
Author and pastor Debbie Blue helps readers discover how to turn the stone back into living Word. She first gives general guidelines for letting the Bible breathe, then looks at the Bible's main themes as dynamically encouraging and challenging. Blue frees believers from dumbed-down spirituality as she reveals that the Word is alive and thrilling.
Author and pastor Debbie Blue helps readers discover how to turn the stone back into living Word. She first gives general guidelines for letting the Bible breathe, then looks at the Bible's main themes as dynamically encouraging and challenging. Blue frees believers from dumbed-down spirituality as she reveals that the Word is alive and thrilling.
224 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2008
9 people are currently reading
68 people want to read
About the author
Debbie Blue
10 books12 followersDebbie Blue is a founding pastor of House of Mercy (HOM) in St. Paul, Minnesota. HOM is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches in the USA and is committed to the diverse and rich theology and worship of the Christian church, worldwide and historical. A graduate of Yale Divinity School, Blue is the author of Sensual Orthodoxy (Cathedral Hill Press)and From Stone to Living Word (Brazos). She lives on a farm outside of the twin cities with her family.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
January 6, 2019
This book falls into a similar category to several other books these days which deal with Biblical contradictions, and the fact that the Bible is not meant to be a "manual for life", but is instead a compilation of documents from various writers in several different cultures. This gives us instead a record through time of the relationship between God and his people. The Bible chronicles all of the ups and downs of this relationship.
Everyone wants to gain from God security and stability, but that is not what he is offering. Debbie Blue discusses a lot about the idols we create in our lives to replace the living, breathing Christ. In making an idol, it makes "the divine available, secures it, and in the end distorts it... Reducing the unfathomably gracious, infinitely loving, sweet sublime to something we can grasp is the move of idolatry."
"Believing that the Word of God is something one can actually hold in their hand or wield at will is idolatry. It is different from faith that the Word of God is the living address of the living God." The Bible is not an answer book that you can open up and use to prove your neighbour wrong in the midst of an argument.
"Reading the Bible doesn't sort everything out and set everything straight. It's more like being drawn into another world where lines break down and separations cease and you lose your sense of righteousness, of being victim to everyone else's wrong."
"Sin is not being naughty. Sin is serving death."
"If God becomes the one the social order rejects, the one everyone is over against, the one on the bottom - if God dies - it's like jamming a log into the gears of the old machine. It breaks it. If God has taken the place on the bottom, what can it mean to be on top? Nothing. Jesus' death exposes the uselessness and utter futility and violence and exclusiveness and meanness of the old glory machine, of deriving our value, significance or serenity over anyone else's. Ever.
Jesus doesn't make a new machine for shooting different sorts of people to the top. He sits in the place of the one on the bottom, the one everyone is against, though not in shame or some sort of false humility, not to wallow in feelings of being bad and nothing and dirt and useless. It is his glory to sit in this place."
Debbie Blue gives us a new perspective on the gospel which moves us away from the purpose of personal salvation and into the idea of reverse glory. All of her ideas are obvious in the Bible once you read her explanations, but we often miss these revolutionary ideas in the scripture because we are looking at it from our 20th century middle class Western viewpoint.
Everyone wants to gain from God security and stability, but that is not what he is offering. Debbie Blue discusses a lot about the idols we create in our lives to replace the living, breathing Christ. In making an idol, it makes "the divine available, secures it, and in the end distorts it... Reducing the unfathomably gracious, infinitely loving, sweet sublime to something we can grasp is the move of idolatry."
"Believing that the Word of God is something one can actually hold in their hand or wield at will is idolatry. It is different from faith that the Word of God is the living address of the living God." The Bible is not an answer book that you can open up and use to prove your neighbour wrong in the midst of an argument.
"Reading the Bible doesn't sort everything out and set everything straight. It's more like being drawn into another world where lines break down and separations cease and you lose your sense of righteousness, of being victim to everyone else's wrong."
"Sin is not being naughty. Sin is serving death."
"If God becomes the one the social order rejects, the one everyone is over against, the one on the bottom - if God dies - it's like jamming a log into the gears of the old machine. It breaks it. If God has taken the place on the bottom, what can it mean to be on top? Nothing. Jesus' death exposes the uselessness and utter futility and violence and exclusiveness and meanness of the old glory machine, of deriving our value, significance or serenity over anyone else's. Ever.
Jesus doesn't make a new machine for shooting different sorts of people to the top. He sits in the place of the one on the bottom, the one everyone is against, though not in shame or some sort of false humility, not to wallow in feelings of being bad and nothing and dirt and useless. It is his glory to sit in this place."
Debbie Blue gives us a new perspective on the gospel which moves us away from the purpose of personal salvation and into the idea of reverse glory. All of her ideas are obvious in the Bible once you read her explanations, but we often miss these revolutionary ideas in the scripture because we are looking at it from our 20th century middle class Western viewpoint.
May 25, 2013
I bought this book after hearing the author read from it at an event. I was impressed by the clarity and originality with which she wrote about Biblical interpretation as idolatry and then about love. It's so easy to say the same old Hallmark-card-for-the-rest-of-us things about love and I felt like Debbie really avoided that. She even wrote that it felt corny to even talk about love, "like I'm young and I don't know anything." She also said that love wasn't "consistently positive regard" because "who could live with anyone and feel that?" I a not a huge fan of scripture because of all the problematic bits, both textual and social, but this book makes scripture sing.
August 28, 2021
The way Blue writes about scripture opens up so much beautiful space for engagement and life
January 12, 2018
this is an absolutely brilliant book. She's a fantastic writer and I could not put it down. I drank in every word and highlighted nearly half of them. I cannot wait to read this book again and again and again. What a beautiful beautiful tribute to God, the Bible, and faith.
January 26, 2023
This is the lowest review I have ever given a book. I was looking for meat, but found rambling. This definitely does not represent any form of true Christianity I have ever experienced. I was unable to finish it because I was gaining nothing from it.
September 13, 2020
I wanted less abstractness, more embodied reflection of language, less assumption of emotional reaction to the language, more teasing out of meaning.
January 2, 2026
In terms of sheer content, this was a good read. The author approaches this subject in a much broader scope than I imagined from the title. This is a book that deals with how we interact with Scripture in general. The Bible is indeed a living, breathing word as it is from God, and not simply a code of laws. God is not someone we can codify or put in a box. To do so, according to Blue, is idolatry.
She points to our hidden manifestations of idolatry and focuses on the relationship and communion that God desires for us and with us. She reminds us that Jesus came to be vulnerable not to illustrate power.
My three star rating is largely because of writing style preferences. Blue’s voice is casual, off-handed, very conversational in nature. These may be traits that a large percentage of readers appreciate. It is just not for me. I found it distracting and flippant at times. The subject matter seems to warrant a more honest and deeper treatment, but I suspect I was not the target audience. Perhaps she is writing to those who are not as comfortable with religious language.
Below are a few books which touch on similar topics that I preferred:
Wearing God: Clothing, Laughter, Fire, and Other Overlooked Ways of Meeting God by Lauren F. Winner
Surprised by Paradox by Jen Pollock Michel
Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale by Frederick Buechner
(And more academic)
The Art of Biblical Narrative by Robert Alter
She points to our hidden manifestations of idolatry and focuses on the relationship and communion that God desires for us and with us. She reminds us that Jesus came to be vulnerable not to illustrate power.
My three star rating is largely because of writing style preferences. Blue’s voice is casual, off-handed, very conversational in nature. These may be traits that a large percentage of readers appreciate. It is just not for me. I found it distracting and flippant at times. The subject matter seems to warrant a more honest and deeper treatment, but I suspect I was not the target audience. Perhaps she is writing to those who are not as comfortable with religious language.
Below are a few books which touch on similar topics that I preferred:
Wearing God: Clothing, Laughter, Fire, and Other Overlooked Ways of Meeting God by Lauren F. Winner
Surprised by Paradox by Jen Pollock Michel
Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale by Frederick Buechner
(And more academic)
The Art of Biblical Narrative by Robert Alter
August 29, 2014
Ms. blue finds a way to give a voice to the stirring, nudging and longings of our soul. Here she reminds us that the gospel is good and beautiful news. "How to Entangle Him in His Talk" has incredible insights. my favorite quotes:
"The way the church often handles the text actually uninspires it, takes away its life. In search of answers, stability, certainly, clarity and comprehension, we get out the nails and the lassos to fix it or capture it, and we end up choking the life from it. We may be dying for something to wield in the face of life's unruliness, but the Bible doesn't seem like a way to get a handle on things. reading it closely, honestly, quizzically, doesn't actually set us straight as much as it rattles us, undoes us, sets us loose so that we might fall into the lap of God."
"The Word of God is not in the text, it's what happens in the struggle."
"The way the church often handles the text actually uninspires it, takes away its life. In search of answers, stability, certainly, clarity and comprehension, we get out the nails and the lassos to fix it or capture it, and we end up choking the life from it. We may be dying for something to wield in the face of life's unruliness, but the Bible doesn't seem like a way to get a handle on things. reading it closely, honestly, quizzically, doesn't actually set us straight as much as it rattles us, undoes us, sets us loose so that we might fall into the lap of God."
"The Word of God is not in the text, it's what happens in the struggle."
May 25, 2009
Hands down one of the best theology/ biblical studies/ preaching books I've ever read, and on the list of the best books I've ever read, period. I think what I like so much about Debbie Blue is that in addition to being a gifted writer capable of moving me to both laughter and tears, she has a consistent, coherent, and faithful approach to the whole Bible that works when applied to any given text.
February 13, 2015
Brilliant wordsmith Debbie Blue releases live scripture from idolatrous set-in-stone temples and tombs. Wife, mother, pastor Debbie's insights and stories, from "Nooses and Knots" to "Reverse Glory", renew my faith, hope and love, turning my stony heart to flesh again.
July 1, 2012
Wow. I feel inclined to reread it immediately. Detailed description of the Good News of the hollowness of our idols and the abundance of freedoma nd love in God.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 15, 2013
Fabulous-and quick- read.
November 25, 2013
Debbie Blue's is a voice so necessary that it's at once indispensable. I deeply appreciate her work, and this book is no exception.
August 3, 2013
Amazing and insightful author. Will read everything she ever writes!
July 3, 2015
book does what title says
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews