Modern biblical scholarship has deconstructed the text of the bible to the point where faith can seem lost. One reaction to this is to insist on the literal truth and accuracy of the bible. Karen Armstrong proposes another: to understand the religious ways in which the bible has been understood across the ages as a living document that speaks to people in the spiritual crises of their day and time.

Phyllis Trible performs a close reading of four of the most horrific passages in the Old Testament. Free translation draws out the poetic structure and literary emphases of the Hebrew text to draw out the voices (and erasure of voices) and lived experiences of women in pivotal events of the bible. While she draws out new meanings of the annunciation, the suffering servant, and Abraham's sacrifice, there is no redeeming story to be found here.

An Eastern Orthodox scholar explores the experience of God across the major world religions.

An examination of the numerous ways in which Christians have interpreted and reinterpreted the story of humanity's expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

For the last 2000 years, Christians have read and re-read the book of Isaiah in a multiplicity of ways that have informed and reformed their understanding of the gospels.

Thomas C. Oden explores Coptic church traditions about St Mark and his early life in Libya. Oden then re-examines in the light of these traditions, exploring Mark's relationship to the Last Supper, Pentecost, and missionary travels.

Dunn challenges the "literary bias" in most historical treatments of the gospels ignoring the prior oral transmission that had to be involved. This must have begun in Jesus's mission in Galilee and particularly in his instruction of the disciples. It must have been maintained within communities of faith. Oral tradition would best explain the roots of both the commonalities and the differences between the synoptic gospels.

In an age of Wikipedia untruths and misinformation can become commonly known facts. David Bentley Hart unravels and corrects more misinformation about Christianity than you ever knew existed.

The message of Easter is the universal salvation of all humanity. "God will be all in all". Eastern Orthodox theologian and philosopher David Bentley Hart doubles down on his New Testament translation by challenging major streams of theology derived from Saint Augustine that play on eternal hellfire and damnation.

No one will burn in hell for all eternity. That threat is incompatible with any theological definition of God; Hell is not in the actual text of the New Testament - which refers more to a cleansing process in Ge-Henna; nor should aionios be translated from the Greek as 'eternity'.

"For just as in Adam all die, so also in the Annointed [Christ] all will be given life." 1 Corinthians 15:22 (tr David Bentley Hart)

"The lynching tree - so strikingly similar to the cross on Golgotha - should have a prominent place in American images of Jesus' death. But it does not. In fact, the lynching tree has no place in American theological reflections about Jesus' cross or in the proclamation of the Christian churches about his Passion. The conspicuous absence of the lynching tree in American discourse and preaching is profoundly revealing, especially since the crucifixion was clearly a first-century lynching."

A practising scientist and member of one of the three Abrahamic faiths questions how he as a scientist - or anyone living in the modern world - can adhere to faith while living in a scientific world.

If the core of the gospels was transmitted by a community of faith, how did they preserve memory until it could be written as history?

Etienne Trockme performs a close reading of the four gospels detecting a passion liturgy as a common source between them, developed in early Christian commemorations held at the time of the annual Passover celebrations in Jerusalem.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a famous discovery but we know less about them than we may think.

Covers modern scholarship on the formation of the bible and how it has been used and understood by various faiths over time, such as the early Christian Church

A collection of the most signigicant academic essays by Jame DG Dunn on the oral tradition that must lie behind the gospels. The treatment of St John's Gospel is particularly enlightening.

A modern reprint of a classic work of scholarship on the Psalms, translated from Swedish. Mowinckel challenges an earlier generation of scholars with a close reading of the Psalms to highlight the textual evidence of the Psalms being an integral part of the worship at the first temple in Jerusalem.