Truth Beyond Literalism
Friday, January 30, 2026
Writer Liz Charlotte Grant describes how she has moved beyond the literal and “inerrant” way she was taught to read the Bible through her religious upbringing:
I used to read the Bible in binary terms—inerrant versus errant, fallible versus infallible. This led me and many American Christians to believe that the whole of our spirituality could be slotted into binaries. We could read a passage either rightly or wrongly. Our interpretation could be true or false. We ourselves could be classed as good or bad, damned or redeemed, friend or enemy. Reading the Bible like this also encouraged us to believe in one single interpretation, … the “plain reading,” because God would not try to keep Godself from us. We flattened the Bible for the sake of simplicity.
Grant discovered a way to reapproach the Bible with curiosity and respect for its history:
I believe this book still deserves our attention—even when it refuses to submit to our age’s demand for historicity, even if we readers leave literalism behind. Truth is not the same as fact. To refuse ourselves these stories is a death by starvation. These spiritual stories sustained our spiritual forebears; without these stories, I suggest that we cannot maintain the imagination required to nurture belief….
I am returning to the Scriptures … but I am reading it slant. I attend to the sky and the ground with free-ranging curiosity, comingling origin stories from science and art with the Bible’s account of God’s first encounters with humanity in the book of Genesis.… Rather than flat-footed rejection, I encourage wandering. Our best questions often sound like doubts, yet I believe curiosity is the most reverent stance a human can take. Wandering itself is a spiritual discipline. Far from losing faith, I have found that wandering has allowed me to find it.
I believe the Bible does have the power to tell us what God is like, even to introduce us to the Creator. But I read the Bible differently than I used to. I move more cautiously, listening closely to a variety of careful scholars—theologians, archaeologists, philologists, linguists, and manuscript critics. I am determined to be patient and humble. I myself am a learner, not a scholar….
You too have permission to question the sacred without fearing a backslide into unbelief. Knock loudly. Listen to your gut and let your tears run. Reject answers that do not admit complication. Seek the resonance at the base of the story. The seeking is the point. Because there, in your wandering, God is.
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1.
“Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness, and pride of power and with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear rather than too much. Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power. Christians should give more offense, shock the world far more than they are doing now. Christians should take a stronger stand in favor of the weak rather than considering first the possible right of the strong.”
– Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German Lutheran Pastor
I am not afraid to say that Bonhoeffer was the first theologian I seriously studied in my early 20s. His whole life and work are utterly inspiring to me.
One thing most people do not know about Dietrich Bonhoeffer is how adamantly he opposed Christian nationalism in Germany. If you go back and read his famous book, Discipleship, you will see that throughout he makes comments against fascism and totalitarianism.
If Bonhoeffer were to travel through time and have the opportunity to give a prophetic and pastoral sermon to our current cultural moment in America, I wonder what he would say. He clearly did not agree with the Church shaking hands with those in power, and believed that the ethics of Christ always sided with the poor, the outcast, the foreigner, the oppressed.
2.
“Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.“
It feels appropriate to reflect on this quote from Jesus.
It happens in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus is arrested by the Roman guard with the Temple leadership’s approval. Peter, believing it is finally time to start fighting back and overthrow the Romans by force, is corrected by Jesus about his tactics…
Jesus tells Peter to put away his sword, and heals the cut off ear of Malchus.
Rather than endorsing violence, Jesus tells his followers to put away their weapons and then heals the wounds of his enemies.
No wonder there are whole books written about this single verse, and it has become one of the most discussed passages on a Christian approach to conflict management, violence, and enemy-love!
3.
“As the ‘imperial mind’ took over, religion had less to do with Jesus’ teachings on nonviolence and forgiveness, and instead became fully complicit in power, war, and greed.”
– Fr. Richard Rohr, Franciscan Friar
“Imperial Christianity” is a term for that false interpretation of Christianity that believes in the use of empire tactics for the sake of influence and expansion. This means using force, might, power, and/or intimidation.
However, true Christianity is always a grassroots movement that primarily uses the tools of compassion, welcome, gentleness, and hospitality.
4.
“Do not give yourselves up to party spirit. . . . To live for a political party is unworthy of a man who professes to be a Christian.”
– Charles Spurgeon, Baptist Preacher
Charles Spurgeon is not a figure I am familiar with.
What strikes me about this quote is that he is often quoted by conservative-leaning pastors. And yet, Spurgeon refused the push/pull of American politics and knew that the ethics of the Kingdom of God utterly transcend bipartisan politics.
The Christian is not allowed to bow to any ideology whatsoever, even if that supposed ideology claims to be more “Christian” than the opposing side. To profess oneself as a Christian means that one is beholden to Christ alone and not any group or collective in particular.
This reminds me of something else, a basic principle from Soren Kierkegaard… “If you can’t critique it, then it is already an idol.” I fear that we all have the tendency to hold our group identities above critique. which means our political parties are almost certainly idols.
5.
“We must not mind insulting men, if by respecting them we offend God.”
– St. John Chrysostom, Early Church Father
John Chrysostom died in 407. This is just a generation after Christianity was legalized as a religion in the Roman Empire and became its official religion.
At no point in the New Testament does it mandate that Christians are to be “nice.”
The New Testament does tell Christians to be “gentle,” but one can be “gentle” while saying things that others do not consider “nice.”
As we can see here, John Chrysostom seems to endorse insulting/offending people. As we look back at the words of the Hebrew Prophets, I sincerely doubt their original audiences thought their sermons were “nice.” No, they poked and prodded and tipped over the “sacred cows.”
Let us not “respect men” if by doing so we “offend God.”
