✝️ Honestly what does "biblical" even mean?
How the reading crisis led to all this.
Earlier this month, an article from The Atlantic was passed around our Shelf Respect Slack channel: The End of Reading is Here. If the title sounds depressing, the contents are apocalyptic: In 2022, less than half of American adults read any book at all. In 2023, the percentage of Americans who read for pleasure was 16%, dropping from 28% in 2004. American adults are reading books meant for young adults, no one is reading the newspaper anymore, and reading scores are down.
Even worse, those who are reading aren’t reaping the benefits: In 2024, 35% of high schoolers scored below “basic” in reading comprehension, analysis, and evaluation. Nearly 30% of Americans cannot read critically, meaning they cannot think deeply about what they are reading.
“Not long ago, a Harvard sociology professor, troubled by course evaluations in which students said they resented the amount of dense reading they were assigned, asked Rennix to speak to his class in defense of reading. She had to explain—to students at America’s most elite university, taking a course in a discipline rooted in written observation, argumentation, and analysis—that excerpts and summaries cannot capture the depth and sophistication of a complete primary text. Rennix told me that some students now view reading as an unnecessarily burdensome way of acquiring knowledge. “By asking them to read,” she said, “professors are arbitrarily withholding information from students by forcing them to get it through this more difficult medium.”
The article paints a vivid picture of America as not illiterate, but postliterate.
It ain’t great.
I’m not of the mindset that reading a book makes you necessarily a better person. I have several people in my life who deal with dyslexia and ADHD, which makes reading an unappealing activity. For the vast majority of human history, reading was for a small sliver of people who had the money and the access to texts. Obviously, reading is good and beneficial, but it’s not a magic wand that transforms you into an upright citizen, benevolent and wise. Hitler could read, you know?
But the effects of a society that doesn’t value reading are certainly not invisible. We know that screens are distracting. We know that most people get their news from TikTok and Reels. We know schools are assigning excerpts over full texts. We know people summarize understanding based on headlines. We know there’s a distrust of news. We can’t tell if images are real, if information is reliable, to the point that we can barely communicate with each other because I think this word means one thing, and you think it means another.
One of the ways I’ve seen this play out is with the word "biblical." In the past few months, I’ve seen some version of the following statements:
War is biblical, therefore it’s a necessary evil.
Biblical marriage consists of a man and a woman only.
It is biblical to support Israel.
Socialism isn’t biblical.
I believe in biblical gender roles.
Supporting Trump is biblical.
That church has biblical teaching.
I process life through a biblical worldview.
How should we view finances biblically?
There are about 3 million videos on YouTube alone that feature a pastor attempting to unpack a concept in a “biblical” manner, or telling you what “biblical” actually means, some of them in direct opposition to one another.
Let’s take the first statement: war is biblical, therefore it’s a necessary evil. Obviously, the Bible is full of stories of war and battles, most of the time portrayed in a positive, or at least an essential, light. God occasionally mandates that God’s people engage in acts of violence and expressions of brutality against an opposing force. There is plenty of rationale for a just war/just violence theology. Jesus himself used a whip to drive the money changers out of the temple.
“Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.” - Psalm 137:9
“I did not come to bring peace to the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” - Matthew 10:34
“For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.” - Romans 13:4
The Bible is also full of calls to radical pacifism, of non-violence.
“Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always be gentle toward everyone.” - Titus 3:1-21
“Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.” - Romans 12:19
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” - Matthew 5:9
“And he will judge between the nations, and will render decisions for many people; and they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war.” - Isaiah 2:4
If we can justify both bloodshed and peacemaking, what then is a biblical understanding of war and violence?
