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The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible
Parakeets make delightful pets. We cage them or clip their wings to keep them where we want them. Scot McKnight contends that many, conservatives and liberals alike, attempt the same thing with the Bible. We all try to tame it. McKnight's The Blue Parakeet calls Christians to stop taming the Bible and to let it speak anew to our heart.
McKnight challenges us to rethink how to read the Bible, not just to puzzle it together into some systematic belief but to see it as a Story that we're summoned to enter and to carry forward in our day.
323 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2008
826 people are currently reading
5544 people want to read
About the author
Scot McKnight
209 books541 followersScot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author or editor of forty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL. Dr. McKnight has given interviews on radios across the nation, has appeared on television, and is regularly speaks at local churches, conferences, colleges, and seminaries in the USA and abroad. Dr. McKnight obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Nottingham (1986).
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March 4, 2010
It would have gotten two stars, except for the last five chapters, which were a defense of women's ordination.
Generally the book was okay (hence two stars). It has all of the same flaws that I find in other run-of-the-mill evangelical books; poor-to-terrible analogies and metaphors, pedestrian prose, shallow thought, etc. It did have some good things to say, mostly in part two (chapters 6-8). Chapter 8 was especially good, in which he points out that St. Augustine said that any interpretation which leads us into living a life of love has been interpreted "goodly" even though not correctly. A misinterpreted verse that leads to our living a life of love is like someone who is on the journey and gets lost along the way but ends up in the right place anyway. Augustine believed that was a legitimate interpretation, though certainly not the right one. McKnight springboards off of that idea to argue that the goal of the Bible is to get us to live proper lives and love others, and if our theology becomes so dry we're not applying it, we don't really have a right theology. Great stuff and I agree completely.
But then he spends the rest of the book, nearly the entire second half of it, defending an indefensible position on how women should be ordained to leadership in the church, and that lost the book a whole star. He does his best to get around the obvious meaning of 1 Tim. 2 and 1 Cor. 14, but in the end they were nothing but excuses. He clearly does not understand the traditional argument of the church on this point. The Bible nowhere says that women as a created group are inferior to men as a created group. As far as creation goes, men and women are equal in stature. But God did designate the role of husband and wife, and the wife is to be in submission to her own husband. Not to anybody else's husband, and not to "men" in general. Some women can be--and let's face it, often are--superior to some men.
McKnight goes through a whole chapter talking about what women could do in the Old Testament, and points out a lot of true things. They were judges, they ran kingdoms, they had large businesses (Prov. 31) and so on. Totally agreed, and nobody's trying to keep women from exercising their gifts. And the Bible even says that women can teach people. They can teach children and younger women, and they can write and talk about theology. Sure. They can hold degrees in theology. The only thing they are prohibited from is ordination as a leader of the church. The NT is staggeringly clear on the subject, both negatively by saying what women can't do (1 Tim. 2; ! Cor. 14) and positively about the qualifications of elders, which are to be men (1 Tim. 3:1-13, etc.). All the things which women did in the OT and even the NT can't prove a thing for ordination. Why? Because Israel was a nation of priests (Ex. 19:6), and this included the women. As a corporate body, a community, Israel was a nation of priests. Yet women were not permitted to serve in the Temple as Levites or Priests. We find the same thing in the NT. The Church is the new Israel, the new corporate priesthood (1 Peter 2:9). Women are priests through baptism, just like men. But in the formal worship women are not permitted to be ordained. I've sat under the teaching of women before, and our church encourages everybody to participate in theological conversation and discussion in Bible study and such. I've learned a lot from women in these areas.
Generally the book was okay (hence two stars). It has all of the same flaws that I find in other run-of-the-mill evangelical books; poor-to-terrible analogies and metaphors, pedestrian prose, shallow thought, etc. It did have some good things to say, mostly in part two (chapters 6-8). Chapter 8 was especially good, in which he points out that St. Augustine said that any interpretation which leads us into living a life of love has been interpreted "goodly" even though not correctly. A misinterpreted verse that leads to our living a life of love is like someone who is on the journey and gets lost along the way but ends up in the right place anyway. Augustine believed that was a legitimate interpretation, though certainly not the right one. McKnight springboards off of that idea to argue that the goal of the Bible is to get us to live proper lives and love others, and if our theology becomes so dry we're not applying it, we don't really have a right theology. Great stuff and I agree completely.
But then he spends the rest of the book, nearly the entire second half of it, defending an indefensible position on how women should be ordained to leadership in the church, and that lost the book a whole star. He does his best to get around the obvious meaning of 1 Tim. 2 and 1 Cor. 14, but in the end they were nothing but excuses. He clearly does not understand the traditional argument of the church on this point. The Bible nowhere says that women as a created group are inferior to men as a created group. As far as creation goes, men and women are equal in stature. But God did designate the role of husband and wife, and the wife is to be in submission to her own husband. Not to anybody else's husband, and not to "men" in general. Some women can be--and let's face it, often are--superior to some men.
McKnight goes through a whole chapter talking about what women could do in the Old Testament, and points out a lot of true things. They were judges, they ran kingdoms, they had large businesses (Prov. 31) and so on. Totally agreed, and nobody's trying to keep women from exercising their gifts. And the Bible even says that women can teach people. They can teach children and younger women, and they can write and talk about theology. Sure. They can hold degrees in theology. The only thing they are prohibited from is ordination as a leader of the church. The NT is staggeringly clear on the subject, both negatively by saying what women can't do (1 Tim. 2; ! Cor. 14) and positively about the qualifications of elders, which are to be men (1 Tim. 3:1-13, etc.). All the things which women did in the OT and even the NT can't prove a thing for ordination. Why? Because Israel was a nation of priests (Ex. 19:6), and this included the women. As a corporate body, a community, Israel was a nation of priests. Yet women were not permitted to serve in the Temple as Levites or Priests. We find the same thing in the NT. The Church is the new Israel, the new corporate priesthood (1 Peter 2:9). Women are priests through baptism, just like men. But in the formal worship women are not permitted to be ordained. I've sat under the teaching of women before, and our church encourages everybody to participate in theological conversation and discussion in Bible study and such. I've learned a lot from women in these areas.
February 24, 2019
I give it 5 stars for the subject matter and for Scot McKnight tackling the subject of how we read the Bible and being willing to state the obvious and yet mostly-ignored-in-an-evangelical-context fact- every last one of us Jesus-followers is picking and choosing what in the Bible we think applies to us today and what doesn’t. THANK YOU!
2.5 stars for somewhat clunky writing and a tendency to over-repeat what he’s already told us over and over and over. I get the feeling that I would probably enjoy taking a class from Dr. McKnight, but he struggles translating his subject matter into book format.
But I’ll round up to 4 stars overall because I’m thankful for his voice cutting through all the prim evangelical declarations that “God said it in the Bible so that settles it!” and other such conversation enders.
Dr. McKnight makes no secret of the fact that he is completely supportive of women in the kingdom being free to exercise all their giftings, including preaching and leading wherever the Spirit leads them. I came to this book already convinced of that, but I found it valuable to see him using the issue as a kind of case study for showing how to read the Bible in its cultural context, how to read it with tradition rather than through tradition, and how to take a contentious topic and look at it through the lense of the entire story God is telling (rather than isolate a couple verses about women being silent and declare “Thus Sayeth The Lawd!”) Scanning a few reviews of the first edition, it’s pretty clear he’s not going to convince anyone who gets the vapors at the idea of a woman in a pulpit, but he probably knew that already.
I have had an uneasy relationship with the Bible despite (or perhaps because of) growing up in a PCA, doctrine-is-everything context where loving your neighbor usually came second to Knowing The Right Theology Stuff. The Bible has always seems to me a gigantic puzzle that I had to solve on peril of hellfire. So I appreciate Dr. McKnight showing me a better way to approach the Bible. Now I just need to find a version that removes all the verse numbers and chapter headings! That would go a long way, I think, in helping me read the Bible as a Kingdom Story.
2.5 stars for somewhat clunky writing and a tendency to over-repeat what he’s already told us over and over and over. I get the feeling that I would probably enjoy taking a class from Dr. McKnight, but he struggles translating his subject matter into book format.
But I’ll round up to 4 stars overall because I’m thankful for his voice cutting through all the prim evangelical declarations that “God said it in the Bible so that settles it!” and other such conversation enders.
Dr. McKnight makes no secret of the fact that he is completely supportive of women in the kingdom being free to exercise all their giftings, including preaching and leading wherever the Spirit leads them. I came to this book already convinced of that, but I found it valuable to see him using the issue as a kind of case study for showing how to read the Bible in its cultural context, how to read it with tradition rather than through tradition, and how to take a contentious topic and look at it through the lense of the entire story God is telling (rather than isolate a couple verses about women being silent and declare “Thus Sayeth The Lawd!”) Scanning a few reviews of the first edition, it’s pretty clear he’s not going to convince anyone who gets the vapors at the idea of a woman in a pulpit, but he probably knew that already.
I have had an uneasy relationship with the Bible despite (or perhaps because of) growing up in a PCA, doctrine-is-everything context where loving your neighbor usually came second to Knowing The Right Theology Stuff. The Bible has always seems to me a gigantic puzzle that I had to solve on peril of hellfire. So I appreciate Dr. McKnight showing me a better way to approach the Bible. Now I just need to find a version that removes all the verse numbers and chapter headings! That would go a long way, I think, in helping me read the Bible as a Kingdom Story.
January 2, 2022
I still don't know what blue parakeets have to do with reading the Bible...?
Me For The First Half of This Book:
Me For The Second Half of This Book:
In fairness, I did find the second-half interesting and even insightful at times. After chapters of theory (one in which he even calls 'so boring you can skip'!), he finally puts all his overly complicated metaphors to use and exegetes the role of women. I agree with his conclusion and I still didn't find it overly persuasive. But it gave me more food for thought.
My biggest takeaway would be his idea of reading Scripture with tradition (aka church doctrine) rather than through tradition (where we turn it into the Torah.) It actually provides a fairly apt metaphor for how different denominations operate within the Body of Christ. I would almost recommend reading it for that thought alone.
But the writing irritating at best, the metaphors overly complicated, and the theology more thought-provoking than convincing. (Mostly because he inserts himself into the narrative far too often for my taste.) I'm not sure I'll return to this one, but I appreciate its goal.
Me For The First Half of This Book:
Me For The Second Half of This Book:
In fairness, I did find the second-half interesting and even insightful at times. After chapters of theory (one in which he even calls 'so boring you can skip'!), he finally puts all his overly complicated metaphors to use and exegetes the role of women. I agree with his conclusion and I still didn't find it overly persuasive. But it gave me more food for thought.
My biggest takeaway would be his idea of reading Scripture with tradition (aka church doctrine) rather than through tradition (where we turn it into the Torah.) It actually provides a fairly apt metaphor for how different denominations operate within the Body of Christ. I would almost recommend reading it for that thought alone.
But the writing irritating at best, the metaphors overly complicated, and the theology more thought-provoking than convincing. (Mostly because he inserts himself into the narrative far too often for my taste.) I'm not sure I'll return to this one, but I appreciate its goal.
June 21, 2022
I'm a pastor on the lookout for books to recommend to parishioners on reading the Bible. This one, while far better than Reading the Bible for All It's Worth, is not the book I'm looking for. At best, Blue Parakeet might have eaten the book I'm looking for, and added to it acronyms (WDWD? = What Did Women Do?); clunky slang (the book's title; Biblical stories as "wiki-stories of the Story”) that already feels dated (at only 8 years old); and a long case-study section on women in ministry which is basically a different book. Also, McKnight's exegetical methods never allow him to even discuss the question of Pauline authorship (even in 1 Timothy) or how McKnight's take on reading "with Tradition" could lend itself to an LGBT-inclusive church. I don't know if that was to not lose part of the intended evangelical audience, but that's my best guess.
March 1, 2019
This is a great place to start for someone who is trying to learn more about how we should read and interpret the Bible. From here I would highly recommend people read Dr. Peter Enns books on the Bible and Rachel Held Evans' book, "Inspired".
February 18, 2009
Scot McKnight is my homeboy. I am really thankful that the emerging/missional/whatever-name-we'll-have-next-week movement has him as a friendly yet challenging theological voice. True to form, this book is full of both encouragements for the church to move forward, as well as cautions to the places where we might go off the rails. It’s provocative and very helpful, and I recommend it.
Here is a quick summary of the book:
“Blue parakeets” are oddities we come across in the Scriptures that we don’t quite know what to do with. The metaphor comes from an incident Scot witnessed in his backyard when a blue parakeet wandered in and upset the other birds there. At first they were scared of it and tried to shoo it away or silence its squawking, but after some time passed they grew accustomed to it, and life went on as it had before, only now with some befriending and others ignoring it. In the same way, McKnight argues, we tend to take difficult passages in the Bible (read here: passages that don’t fit our current understanding of the Bible), and react in ways that attempt to silence, shoo away, or ignore their presence. We do this by treating the Bible as a book of laws, a collection of blessings and promises, a big Rorschach blot to read our ideas into, a puzzle in search of a systematized solution through which to read it, or we favor one author over the others and read everyone else through our preferred Maestro (traditionally evangelicals have read Jesus through the letters of Paul, though in the emerging church world many now read Paul through Jesus. Neither way is a good idea). We use these methods (though not always consciously) to master the text and tame the parakeets we find there. One of the greatest strengths of the book is this critique of how we read the Bible. Everyone picks and chooses (“adapts and adopts”) what to apply today, McKnight points out. He simply names the different frameworks we use to pick and choose.
Instead of this, says McKnight, we need to let the “blue parakeets” be what they are so they can challenge and further inform our view of Scripture. In short, his answer as to how we do this is to (a) read the Bible as Story - a series of narratives within an overarching narratives, and (b) develop patterns of discernment that help us faithfully bring the Story to bear in our application of the Bible to our lives. Scot uses the metaphor of a waterslide to help us here: as the church attempts to live in biblically faithful ways (aka slide down the slide), it is aided by the Holy Spirit (the water in the slide), and kept between the rails of the Bible on one side and church tradition on the other (important: we read with tradition, not through it. It keeps us on track, but does not dictate interpretation). We do this well as we immerse ourselves in the text, allow it to master us, and discern with the Holy Spirit and the church how we faithfully live out the Story in our world.
I found his framework very helpful. In one sense it is familiar, as it doesn’t differ entirely from the standard evangelical method of looking for principles from the Scriptures and applying them in our context (he points this out). I find that most Bible readers do this somewhat intuitively, though we often fall into silence-the-parakeet patterns above when we get into trouble. At the same time, in articulating how to read the Bible and discern principles/patterns in light of the Bible’s overarching Story, McKnight invites us to do so in ways that are less haphazard and more faithful to the Scripture. And reading the Bible with the church past and present is also somewhat intuitive, though specifically naming this is also very helpful.
Discerning biblical patterns is messy, McKnight is quick to point out, yet those who pastor churches or teach the Bible academically know this already! The mess isn’t new, and if we are looking for a hermeneutical framework that isn’t messy we’ll be looking for a long time. What we need is a framework that is faithful to Scripture and that helps us make it through the mess well, and I for one think McKnight’s framework is very helpful.
One potential blind spot that McKnight doesn’t mention is related to one he does - our tendency to silence texts by systematizing the Bible. This is important to point out and I don’t think that by it he means it to disparage systematic theology, only the improper use of it. However, what McKnight doesn’t point out is that our summary of the Bible’s overarching story can function in the same way a systematic theology can – as a means of silencing the parakeets instead of letting them sing. We must be careful that our particular telling of the Story (and I think his is a good one) doesn’t become so calcified that it supplants the Story itself, or that we read the text so much through our particular telling of the Story that it colors what we see in the text.
This occurred to me as I read the last third of the book, which uses the role of women in ministry as a case study to understand his method. This is a great section, and though it is brief he makes a great case for women serving as pastors/elders today. However, having read quite a bit on both sides of this debate, it occurred to me that small changes in one’s particular summation of the biblical Story can have a major effect on the conclusion one reaches. I don’t think it is either possible or desirable to read the Bible apart from the overarching Story. Rather, I think we need to be aware that even this method runs the danger of silencing the parakeets.
This is a great book, and I look forward to recommending it to both lay people and pastoral types. Big thanks to Scot McKnight!
Here is a quick summary of the book:
“Blue parakeets” are oddities we come across in the Scriptures that we don’t quite know what to do with. The metaphor comes from an incident Scot witnessed in his backyard when a blue parakeet wandered in and upset the other birds there. At first they were scared of it and tried to shoo it away or silence its squawking, but after some time passed they grew accustomed to it, and life went on as it had before, only now with some befriending and others ignoring it. In the same way, McKnight argues, we tend to take difficult passages in the Bible (read here: passages that don’t fit our current understanding of the Bible), and react in ways that attempt to silence, shoo away, or ignore their presence. We do this by treating the Bible as a book of laws, a collection of blessings and promises, a big Rorschach blot to read our ideas into, a puzzle in search of a systematized solution through which to read it, or we favor one author over the others and read everyone else through our preferred Maestro (traditionally evangelicals have read Jesus through the letters of Paul, though in the emerging church world many now read Paul through Jesus. Neither way is a good idea). We use these methods (though not always consciously) to master the text and tame the parakeets we find there. One of the greatest strengths of the book is this critique of how we read the Bible. Everyone picks and chooses (“adapts and adopts”) what to apply today, McKnight points out. He simply names the different frameworks we use to pick and choose.
Instead of this, says McKnight, we need to let the “blue parakeets” be what they are so they can challenge and further inform our view of Scripture. In short, his answer as to how we do this is to (a) read the Bible as Story - a series of narratives within an overarching narratives, and (b) develop patterns of discernment that help us faithfully bring the Story to bear in our application of the Bible to our lives. Scot uses the metaphor of a waterslide to help us here: as the church attempts to live in biblically faithful ways (aka slide down the slide), it is aided by the Holy Spirit (the water in the slide), and kept between the rails of the Bible on one side and church tradition on the other (important: we read with tradition, not through it. It keeps us on track, but does not dictate interpretation). We do this well as we immerse ourselves in the text, allow it to master us, and discern with the Holy Spirit and the church how we faithfully live out the Story in our world.
I found his framework very helpful. In one sense it is familiar, as it doesn’t differ entirely from the standard evangelical method of looking for principles from the Scriptures and applying them in our context (he points this out). I find that most Bible readers do this somewhat intuitively, though we often fall into silence-the-parakeet patterns above when we get into trouble. At the same time, in articulating how to read the Bible and discern principles/patterns in light of the Bible’s overarching Story, McKnight invites us to do so in ways that are less haphazard and more faithful to the Scripture. And reading the Bible with the church past and present is also somewhat intuitive, though specifically naming this is also very helpful.
Discerning biblical patterns is messy, McKnight is quick to point out, yet those who pastor churches or teach the Bible academically know this already! The mess isn’t new, and if we are looking for a hermeneutical framework that isn’t messy we’ll be looking for a long time. What we need is a framework that is faithful to Scripture and that helps us make it through the mess well, and I for one think McKnight’s framework is very helpful.
One potential blind spot that McKnight doesn’t mention is related to one he does - our tendency to silence texts by systematizing the Bible. This is important to point out and I don’t think that by it he means it to disparage systematic theology, only the improper use of it. However, what McKnight doesn’t point out is that our summary of the Bible’s overarching story can function in the same way a systematic theology can – as a means of silencing the parakeets instead of letting them sing. We must be careful that our particular telling of the Story (and I think his is a good one) doesn’t become so calcified that it supplants the Story itself, or that we read the text so much through our particular telling of the Story that it colors what we see in the text.
This occurred to me as I read the last third of the book, which uses the role of women in ministry as a case study to understand his method. This is a great section, and though it is brief he makes a great case for women serving as pastors/elders today. However, having read quite a bit on both sides of this debate, it occurred to me that small changes in one’s particular summation of the biblical Story can have a major effect on the conclusion one reaches. I don’t think it is either possible or desirable to read the Bible apart from the overarching Story. Rather, I think we need to be aware that even this method runs the danger of silencing the parakeets.
This is a great book, and I look forward to recommending it to both lay people and pastoral types. Big thanks to Scot McKnight!
May 2, 2024
Scot McKnight does a masterful job teaching about the ways in which every believer, every church “picks and chooses” what they practice in the Bible. He outlines the necessity of discerning in community with the Holy Spirit and with church tradition what the Bible is saying and how we are to live it today. I am so thankful for his insights. I love that he released an updated version of this book a couple years ago, it shows his humility and commitment to growth.
“The Psalmist’s approach to the Bible (in Psalm 119) is not expressed like this; “Your words are authoritative, and I am called to submit to them.” Instead, his approach is more like this: “Your words are delightful, and I love to do what you ask.” The difference between these two approaches is enormous. One of them is a relationship to the Bible; the other is a relationship with God.”
“The Psalmist’s approach to the Bible (in Psalm 119) is not expressed like this; “Your words are authoritative, and I am called to submit to them.” Instead, his approach is more like this: “Your words are delightful, and I love to do what you ask.” The difference between these two approaches is enormous. One of them is a relationship to the Bible; the other is a relationship with God.”
February 4, 2025
A certified banger. Scot asks, why do we adopt parts of the Bible and adapt others? The book argues for a particular way of reading the Bible as a story of the king and his kingdom whereby we discern how to make meaning out of ancient texts for life in the kingdom today. The way he shows how this plays out in relevant issues regarding women in ministry, slavery, divorce etc is profoundly helpful as well.
December 12, 2020
well now I have a lot to think about
January 7, 2021
Expecting a book about hermeneutics, I must admit that The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible was rather more theoretical than procedural. Scot McKnight makes some very important points right from the start. After setting up his “blue parakeet” metaphor (worth reading so I won’t give it away—basically, it means those uncomfortable passages that force us to rethink our lives and the interpretation of the Bible that informs those lives.
One of the most valuable portions of the book was McKnight’s listing of inadequate shortcuts that believers tend to adopt. These were: 1) treating the Bible as a collection of laws (p. 44), 2) reducing the Bible to morsels of blessings and promises (pp. 45-46), 3) soothing oneself with subjective interpretations as with inkblots and mirrors (pp. 48-49), 4) puzzling out meaning according to one’s creative imagination (pp. 49-52), and 5) reading only through the eyes of some biblical “maestro” (pp. 53-54). What is the corrective according to McKnight? Context! He prefers to wrap the idea and importance of context in story, but he does explicitly explain on p. 63: “God chose to communicate in language, since language is always shaped by context, and since God chose to speak to us over time and through many writers, God also chose to speak to us in a variety of ways and expressions.”
But illustrative of the high concept/low guidance criticism invoked earlier, I am thrilled at the principle he quotes another scholar about a hermeneutics of love (“The hermeneutics of love requires that books and authors…be understood and treated as neighbors.” – p. 107) which he goes on to identify, correctly, as “listening.” Yet, I am not positive that his four-step approach on p. 108 is sufficient:
“1) we learn to listen to and for God in the Bible as we read it;
2) we are attentive enough to recognize God’s voice and let it in;
3) we absorb what God says so that it floods our inner beings; and
4) we act on what we have heard from God.”
I absolutely agree with these four points; I just don’t think McKnight gave students/readers adequate guidance on how to do it. I like his idea of seeing all of the “blue parakeet” questions in terms of the context of the whole story, and I even recognize that his appeal to classical Roman sources to explain “blue parakeets” like women keeping silent in the church demonstrates concern for historical-cultural context (pp. 251-252, 285-286, 287-288), but he doesn’t really give his readers any guidance in how to weigh historical/cultural evidence.
McKnight quotes many solid sources, but my favorite was a personal anecdote where he quotes F. F. Bruce as saying, “I think Paul would turn over in his grave if he knew we were turning his letters into torah.” (p. 261) And I liked one of the takeaways toward the end where McKnight asserts that even interpretations that have “explanatory power” may not be right (p. 315).
I appreciate The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible. I believe it plants an important seed in understanding and interpreting the Bible. However, I do think McKnight has been in the classroom long enough that he assumes certain basics without delineating them to students or lay leaders.
One of the most valuable portions of the book was McKnight’s listing of inadequate shortcuts that believers tend to adopt. These were: 1) treating the Bible as a collection of laws (p. 44), 2) reducing the Bible to morsels of blessings and promises (pp. 45-46), 3) soothing oneself with subjective interpretations as with inkblots and mirrors (pp. 48-49), 4) puzzling out meaning according to one’s creative imagination (pp. 49-52), and 5) reading only through the eyes of some biblical “maestro” (pp. 53-54). What is the corrective according to McKnight? Context! He prefers to wrap the idea and importance of context in story, but he does explicitly explain on p. 63: “God chose to communicate in language, since language is always shaped by context, and since God chose to speak to us over time and through many writers, God also chose to speak to us in a variety of ways and expressions.”
But illustrative of the high concept/low guidance criticism invoked earlier, I am thrilled at the principle he quotes another scholar about a hermeneutics of love (“The hermeneutics of love requires that books and authors…be understood and treated as neighbors.” – p. 107) which he goes on to identify, correctly, as “listening.” Yet, I am not positive that his four-step approach on p. 108 is sufficient:
“1) we learn to listen to and for God in the Bible as we read it;
2) we are attentive enough to recognize God’s voice and let it in;
3) we absorb what God says so that it floods our inner beings; and
4) we act on what we have heard from God.”
I absolutely agree with these four points; I just don’t think McKnight gave students/readers adequate guidance on how to do it. I like his idea of seeing all of the “blue parakeet” questions in terms of the context of the whole story, and I even recognize that his appeal to classical Roman sources to explain “blue parakeets” like women keeping silent in the church demonstrates concern for historical-cultural context (pp. 251-252, 285-286, 287-288), but he doesn’t really give his readers any guidance in how to weigh historical/cultural evidence.
McKnight quotes many solid sources, but my favorite was a personal anecdote where he quotes F. F. Bruce as saying, “I think Paul would turn over in his grave if he knew we were turning his letters into torah.” (p. 261) And I liked one of the takeaways toward the end where McKnight asserts that even interpretations that have “explanatory power” may not be right (p. 315).
I appreciate The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible. I believe it plants an important seed in understanding and interpreting the Bible. However, I do think McKnight has been in the classroom long enough that he assumes certain basics without delineating them to students or lay leaders.
March 14, 2019
Scot McKnight has received some minor acclaim in the Christian circles I'm a part of. This book (the original and, by extension, this second edition) is known as the crown jewel of his work—most notably for his handling of A) How followers of Jesus should accurately and fairly treat scripture today and B) The place of women in church ministries in our world. I was recommended this book by a trusted friend, and I've only heard more about McKnight since then, including an impulse-buy-and-read of one of his books on the Holy Spirit, which I thought was good, but nothing necessarily groundbreaking.
This book was different, however. If you're like me—raised in a faith tradition that treats the Bible as a relic to be "gotten," "figured out," "understood correctly" (in one rigid, manual-like prescriptive sense), and defended when this tradition (and way of black and white literal understanding) is threatened—it's God's sovereign, inerrant, non-contradictory, direct Word, after all—then this book is required reading: vastly important, freeing, and (for those who need the reassurance) biblically-grounded and logically-reasoned.
McKnight does a thorough and fair job of really laying out the process of how many of us treat scripture, and how a fairer rendering of this treatment may be lived in our world—in "our ways in our days" to borrow the phrase he uses to send home the idea of timeless relevance and culturally-informed faith practices.
A "blue parakeet" is a reference to an interaction he had once with an unlikely garden visitor; he likens this situation to what we (as readers and followers of the bible) do when we come across moments in scripture that would have us gloss over, speed through, or ignore completely the difficult nature of their blatancy or existence.
McKnight covers much ground in this book: it was helpful for me, even though at this point in my faith it didn't say anything that I was dumbfounded by. It's useful to really grasp the fact that so many readers of the bible come away with such different conclusions. At its best, it will allow one to strengthen and appreciate relationship with scripture—it may even lead to some opening, freeing, and thus healing to take place where it may be needed, noticeably or not.
From women in ministry, to justice (as I understand it, a recent addition to this second edition), and even an appendix on the origins/creation account, you'd be hard-pressed to find something in the pages of this book that wouldn't benefit, or at the very least, intrigue you. It is now on my shelf of foundational religious/faith reads.
This book was different, however. If you're like me—raised in a faith tradition that treats the Bible as a relic to be "gotten," "figured out," "understood correctly" (in one rigid, manual-like prescriptive sense), and defended when this tradition (and way of black and white literal understanding) is threatened—it's God's sovereign, inerrant, non-contradictory, direct Word, after all—then this book is required reading: vastly important, freeing, and (for those who need the reassurance) biblically-grounded and logically-reasoned.
McKnight does a thorough and fair job of really laying out the process of how many of us treat scripture, and how a fairer rendering of this treatment may be lived in our world—in "our ways in our days" to borrow the phrase he uses to send home the idea of timeless relevance and culturally-informed faith practices.
A "blue parakeet" is a reference to an interaction he had once with an unlikely garden visitor; he likens this situation to what we (as readers and followers of the bible) do when we come across moments in scripture that would have us gloss over, speed through, or ignore completely the difficult nature of their blatancy or existence.
McKnight covers much ground in this book: it was helpful for me, even though at this point in my faith it didn't say anything that I was dumbfounded by. It's useful to really grasp the fact that so many readers of the bible come away with such different conclusions. At its best, it will allow one to strengthen and appreciate relationship with scripture—it may even lead to some opening, freeing, and thus healing to take place where it may be needed, noticeably or not.
From women in ministry, to justice (as I understand it, a recent addition to this second edition), and even an appendix on the origins/creation account, you'd be hard-pressed to find something in the pages of this book that wouldn't benefit, or at the very least, intrigue you. It is now on my shelf of foundational religious/faith reads.
May 11, 2021
After some big recommendations (including one from the Bible Project, no less!) I was nervously expecting and hoping this book would helpfully challenge some long-held notions about how I read the Bible in general as well as specific interpretations. Unfortunately, I found his methodology to be pretty flawed (maybe more specifically his eschatology - McKnight seems to imply that we should re-interpret NT teaching for our day in the same way that we should re-interpret OT teaching for our day. Felt like he overlooked the crucial point that we are in the same age/covenant as NT Christians, so our approach to those Scriptures should look more like re-application to a new culture, than re-interpretation for a new covenant. But I'm getting too long-winded for a side-comment...), so couldn't accept a number of his conclusions. However, when he wasn't so tied to this methodology he did make some absolutely cracking insights - the chapters on 'missional reading' and a biblical view of justice were standout.
May 5, 2022
This book was a great surprise- it was deep, thoughtful, insightful, and smart. There was so much to think through in this one. I'm pretty sure I'll need to reread this one.
July 5, 2016
A five-star rating system calls for a rubric to determine how many stars to give a book. In my personal rubric, a book has to pass a certain threshold of readability to gain more than one star.
This book failed to meet that threshold.
While reading this book, I felt like I was grading an essay that should receive an F grade. No editor worth his price should have allowed McKnight's book to be published. The writing is clunky. The metaphors are strained. The chapters meander. McKnight himself literally admits that one chapter probably shouldn't have made it into the book, but he allows it to exist anyway.
I wish I could recommend this book. I really wanted to. I highlighted a few passages early on, since McKnight offers a few gems here and there that provide a unique perspective on the Bible. I was excited at the prospect of shifting my Scriptural paradigm. Unfortunately, the narrative completely collapses after a few chapters. As other reviewers have noted, McKnight has essentially written two half-books. Neither one is worth reading.
The first half-book reads as a series of sermon notes describing various ways we read the Bible. The second half-book is a tortured justification of women in ministry. My personal position on this issue is completely irrelevant, since the chapters aren't written well enough to convince anyone that McKnight even has a coherent philosophy on the issue.
Skip this book. Maybe someone has been convinced enough by the author's arguments to write a well-conceived book of their own that's actually worth reading.
This book failed to meet that threshold.
While reading this book, I felt like I was grading an essay that should receive an F grade. No editor worth his price should have allowed McKnight's book to be published. The writing is clunky. The metaphors are strained. The chapters meander. McKnight himself literally admits that one chapter probably shouldn't have made it into the book, but he allows it to exist anyway.
I wish I could recommend this book. I really wanted to. I highlighted a few passages early on, since McKnight offers a few gems here and there that provide a unique perspective on the Bible. I was excited at the prospect of shifting my Scriptural paradigm. Unfortunately, the narrative completely collapses after a few chapters. As other reviewers have noted, McKnight has essentially written two half-books. Neither one is worth reading.
The first half-book reads as a series of sermon notes describing various ways we read the Bible. The second half-book is a tortured justification of women in ministry. My personal position on this issue is completely irrelevant, since the chapters aren't written well enough to convince anyone that McKnight even has a coherent philosophy on the issue.
Skip this book. Maybe someone has been convinced enough by the author's arguments to write a well-conceived book of their own that's actually worth reading.
October 22, 2020
Worth the slog, though the author was a bit redundant. His academic work with learners is important, challenging assumptions, getting newbies to think, his repetitions are a teacher tool, I suppose. His best contribution is summarized pp.66-79 on the importance of the big picture themes. However, as a woman of the Word, (a former feminist) who has served in the (imperfect) church. I found his new found liberation embarrassing. Like Yancy, or Enns, this writer is still trying to shake off the confines of early rigid church experience. Maybe I should be more sympathetic, but it smacks somewhat pc to me. His insights into (the pesky) Paul's culture are interesting. However for all the digging there, the author fails to speak of Paul's mention of the creation order as consequential. Mutuality is important and should be obvious as McKnight rightly brings out. But the prototype of God's choice in creation order is informative; and that before sin entered. It seems to me the author missed an important parakeet in his discussion, and might better take his own advice and live not 'through' his own sorry tradition but 'with' tradition. That said, I will keep this book on my 'women in ministry' shelf for the information in the appendixes.
November 11, 2019
First audio book I completed in a long time! This book was SO good for my soul. In my opinion, this book (or one like it) should given to everyone who desires to encounter God through the Bible. I had to push through at some points, “okay Scott, where are you going with this...?”, but I’m glad I did as he treated very “touchy” topics with integrity, grace, truth, and comprehension! I also did pray before each listening asking that God would let His words come through and if this book were teaching something that God did NOT intend, that it would be made clear to me. This is probably a good think to do with all forms of media intake... 😊. Enjoy!
July 16, 2018
This book is in several parts - part 1 is about what the Bible is, how we should look at it, how we read it poorly; part 2 is McKnight's suggestion on how to read the Bible better; part 3 is a case study on how to read the Bible that looks at women in ministry. McKnight's thoughts on how to read the Bible makes a lot of sense. He argues we pick and choose what to follow in the Bible (and he's not wrong), but that not only is this ok, that all people in all times have done this - even biblical authors. Really interesting and thought provoking.
November 6, 2018
This was not very well put together. I feel like the editor failed to corral the author’s wandering and overly repetitive thoughts. The metaphors were clunky and didn’t really hold up particularly well under scrutiny. I grew weary of the blue parakeets and all their singing and silencing.
I actually agree with most of McKnight’s assertions, so no problem there. I just didn’t feel he supported or communicated them very well.
I actually agree with most of McKnight’s assertions, so no problem there. I just didn’t feel he supported or communicated them very well.
October 26, 2021
An important and helpful book on how to read the Bible. McKnight helps the reader to look at Scripture as a whole with a directional plot and an author that is meant to be encountered through Scripture. I enjoyed his case study in which he applies the theory he lays out in the first half of the book. His writing style felt a bit cumbersome at times and he tended to repeat himself. Overall, it's worth a quick read.
April 17, 2025
This was a good book there were times where it really made me think and ask myself where were the parts of the Bible that I would glaze over and the parts that I would be more intentional about, and what what did that reveal about my heart.
Quotes:
What I learned is that sometimes we look behind the text to grasp a timeless principle and the principle is more important than doing the actual words.- Bill Mounce-page15
Traditionalism is the inflexible, don’t-ask-questions, do-it-the-way-it-has-always-been-done approach to Bible reading. It reads the Bible THROUGH tradition. What happens then?those who read the Bible THROUGH tradition always see the traditional way of reading the Bible. This approach is nearly incapable of renewal and adaptation.-page31-32
There’s another ugly element to the mistake of making the Bible a law book: what it does to us. We, the obedient ones, be come insufferable. How so? We…
1 become intoxicated with our own moral superiority.
2 become more concerned with being right than being good
3 become judgmental
In short, law book readers become pompous, self-righteous, and accusatory. Sometimes we become resentful that others haven’t caught up to our level of holiness.-page44
God did not give the Bible so we could master him or it; God gave the Bible so we could live it, so we could be mastered by it. The moment we think we’ve masted it, we have failed to be readers of the Bible.-page 52
God’s idea of redemption is community-shaped. Oneness cannot be achieved just between God and self; rather, oneness involves God,self,and others, and the world around us. Page73
But if we learn to read the Bible WITH tradition—and it’s a bit like sitting down at a table with three or four generations in our family on Christmas holiday— we can enter into this big conversation in which we can learn from the wisdom of the past. Page 90
Having the right view isn’t the point of the Bible. We need to have not only a “view” of the Bible but also a “relationship” to the God of the Bible.- page95
Quotes:
What I learned is that sometimes we look behind the text to grasp a timeless principle and the principle is more important than doing the actual words.- Bill Mounce-page15
Traditionalism is the inflexible, don’t-ask-questions, do-it-the-way-it-has-always-been-done approach to Bible reading. It reads the Bible THROUGH tradition. What happens then?those who read the Bible THROUGH tradition always see the traditional way of reading the Bible. This approach is nearly incapable of renewal and adaptation.-page31-32
There’s another ugly element to the mistake of making the Bible a law book: what it does to us. We, the obedient ones, be come insufferable. How so? We…
1 become intoxicated with our own moral superiority.
2 become more concerned with being right than being good
3 become judgmental
In short, law book readers become pompous, self-righteous, and accusatory. Sometimes we become resentful that others haven’t caught up to our level of holiness.-page44
God did not give the Bible so we could master him or it; God gave the Bible so we could live it, so we could be mastered by it. The moment we think we’ve masted it, we have failed to be readers of the Bible.-page 52
God’s idea of redemption is community-shaped. Oneness cannot be achieved just between God and self; rather, oneness involves God,self,and others, and the world around us. Page73
But if we learn to read the Bible WITH tradition—and it’s a bit like sitting down at a table with three or four generations in our family on Christmas holiday— we can enter into this big conversation in which we can learn from the wisdom of the past. Page 90
Having the right view isn’t the point of the Bible. We need to have not only a “view” of the Bible but also a “relationship” to the God of the Bible.- page95
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 15, 2025
I appreciated how this book made me think about the passages of the Bible that we often try to overlook or find uncomfortable. But I have concerns about the author seeks to interpret these passages. The idea that cultural contexts should guide us, even when there aren't indications in the text that a commandment is cultural feels rather dangerous. While I don't believe McKnight is a relativist, it's unclear to me how his framework doesn't easily become a justification for a relativistic reading of Scripture.
I enjoyed McKnight's writing style and I found the book interesting. But I'm not sure I found it helpful or worth recommending.
I enjoyed McKnight's writing style and I found the book interesting. But I'm not sure I found it helpful or worth recommending.
April 20, 2025
Underneath layer after layer of illustrations and metaphors and anecdotes, McKnight makes a couple of interesting points.
Biblical theology is great. Love that he talks about it. I do feel like if you took out his emotional appeals, illustrations, and metaphors, you’d be left with maybe 50-100 pages of substance. Is the substance good? Yeah. Did he absolutely and totally lose me along the way in a few useless metaphors that really don’t help him to convey his arguments? Most definitely. Just not my style.
Biblical theology is great. Love that he talks about it. I do feel like if you took out his emotional appeals, illustrations, and metaphors, you’d be left with maybe 50-100 pages of substance. Is the substance good? Yeah. Did he absolutely and totally lose me along the way in a few useless metaphors that really don’t help him to convey his arguments? Most definitely. Just not my style.
December 31, 2024
I listened to this as a free audiobook and don’t recommend that. Many times I wanted to highlight, underline, or bookmark sections for further reflection and comparison with Scripture and other writers. While I may not agree with all the author’s conclusions, I found them thought-provoking and ultimately appreciated that he underscored the value of women’s stories in Scripture. Iron sharpens iron, and I will enjoy discussing these ideas with others as the opportunity arises.
May 9, 2023
I have consumed a lot of Bible Project content over the years, and I know Tim Mackie really likes this book, so I feel like I have absorbed a lot of the key ideas from this just by listening to Bible Project. If you’re like me with that, you probably don’t need to read this book, but if not, I would recommend! Definitely a lot of important things in here.
I don’t know what to make of the case study at the end with women in ministry. Don’t think I’m smart enough to understand where I land, but it was interesting. I think I agree with him in part and disagree with him in part.
I don’t know what to make of the case study at the end with women in ministry. Don’t think I’m smart enough to understand where I land, but it was interesting. I think I agree with him in part and disagree with him in part.
December 27, 2023
I found this book to be very helpful in adjusting some unhealthy views of Scripture I've been taught/imbibed. His case study on the role of women in the church was very thought-provoking, although I don't agree with everything he had to say. He definitely brought out some new perspectives along that line that I'll be thinking about for a while, though. This is a book that pushed me around a little bit...but in good ways.
May 27, 2023
This book was incredibly helpful. A little repetitive in some sections but overall I appreciate what McKnight is doing here.
November 5, 2020
This book was like yoga it stretched me in places and helped me to relax in others. I’ll be coming back to it I am sure.
December 15, 2023
This book has been swirling around different reading lists and online circles for a while now. I finally managed to my hands on a copy (for 25 cents no less) and was really excited to read it. I have to say that I am really disappointed by this book.
I'll start with the good. The book is a quick, easy to read hermeneutic. I think reading the Bible as story is a great hermeneutic, and far and away a more accurate way to read than reading the Bible as exclusively a law-book, self help book, or collection of wise sayings. The call to read and engage with the Bible is great, as is the call to catechize our churches once again. McKnight wants churches to be biblically literate places of worship. I love this.
The bad is, unfortunately, more significant than the good. McKnight provides an example of what it means to read the Bible as story by providing an argument for women's ordination. First, I don't know how this squares with reading the Bible as story, it seems more like reading the Bible as argumentative piece, but I digress. McKnight says we must discern what the Bible is saying, yes. I'm so disappointed, not because he is for women's ordination; honestly, I've been wanting to read a good, academic study on the topic (so if anyone has any suggestions - send them my way). I am disappointed because his 'read the Bible as a story' hermeneutic when applied to women in ministry was woefully deficient. I feel like he danced around the issue. The central issue is women's ORDINATION, not women doing amazing things in the Bible. He does bring up a few good points, but how can you read the story and neglect completely Paul's qualifications for an elder? McKnight spends time earlier in the book discussing how we cherry pick scripture, but you can't cherry pick to the point where you completely neglect a central text of the issue.
Also, this is a small point, but it happened enough that it was annoying. The continual use of the blue parakeet metaphor became awkward the more he used it. McKnight wants to let these 'blue parakeets sing' (let women speak) but the more he used the metaphor the cringier it got.
Again, I was excited for this book, but I was disappointed by the outcome of his story hermeneutic.
I'll start with the good. The book is a quick, easy to read hermeneutic. I think reading the Bible as story is a great hermeneutic, and far and away a more accurate way to read than reading the Bible as exclusively a law-book, self help book, or collection of wise sayings. The call to read and engage with the Bible is great, as is the call to catechize our churches once again. McKnight wants churches to be biblically literate places of worship. I love this.
The bad is, unfortunately, more significant than the good. McKnight provides an example of what it means to read the Bible as story by providing an argument for women's ordination. First, I don't know how this squares with reading the Bible as story, it seems more like reading the Bible as argumentative piece, but I digress. McKnight says we must discern what the Bible is saying, yes. I'm so disappointed, not because he is for women's ordination; honestly, I've been wanting to read a good, academic study on the topic (so if anyone has any suggestions - send them my way). I am disappointed because his 'read the Bible as a story' hermeneutic when applied to women in ministry was woefully deficient. I feel like he danced around the issue. The central issue is women's ORDINATION, not women doing amazing things in the Bible. He does bring up a few good points, but how can you read the story and neglect completely Paul's qualifications for an elder? McKnight spends time earlier in the book discussing how we cherry pick scripture, but you can't cherry pick to the point where you completely neglect a central text of the issue.
Also, this is a small point, but it happened enough that it was annoying. The continual use of the blue parakeet metaphor became awkward the more he used it. McKnight wants to let these 'blue parakeets sing' (let women speak) but the more he used the metaphor the cringier it got.
Again, I was excited for this book, but I was disappointed by the outcome of his story hermeneutic.
November 12, 2022
Honest and thoughtful book about how we interpret the Bible and how we determine what is applicable for today from scripture. No one follows every word of the Bible, we all pick and choose. Otherwise we would be murdering magicians, silencing women in church, and judging most divorces to be sinful. The author methodically looks through church history at how we’ve applied discernment in the past and walks the reader through reading the Bible as the grand narrative about God and his Kingdom. The blue parakeet metaphor is about how for a season someone’s pet parakeet had escaped and was feeding in the author’s bird feeder with native birds. Sometimes we find passages in scripture that unsettle us like seeing a tropical bird among the sparrows and jays. We can ignore the parakeet or address it. It is a lot more difficult to look at passages through cultural context, the overall narrative, and tradition and while holding in our minds other scripture, and sometimes it can be a slippery slope, but it seems to me like this is a worthy endeavor and a more responsible way to read the Word than a black and white the-bible-says-it-so-we-should-do-it way of reading. I especially enjoyed his case study (multiple chapters worth) on how to treat Paul’s infamous passages about women in the church.
March 24, 2009
This is an excellent book because it pushes readers of the bible to examine why we read the good book in the way that we do. Specifically, why do we treat different passages of the bible in different way, or more pragmatically, why do we obey different parts of the bible in different ways? Scot McKnight, acknowledges that this reality is actually a good thing but then commends a reading strategy that can help us deal with the passages that are often ignored and especially with the ones that are contentious. He proposes that we read the bible as a grand story or narrative and to look at each bit of the bible as a "wiki" story on the larger story. Half the book is spent in talking about how we read the bible and giving his defense of his reading strategy and the second half of the book is a test case for a contentious issue, women in ministry. The result are well thought out and persuasive. Read the book and find out what his conclusions are and why he makes them!
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