The Whole Counsel of God

An Introduction to Your Bible

De: Stephen De Young

Narrado por: Stephen De Young

In The Whole Counsel of God, popular writer and podcaster Fr. Stephen de Young gives an overview of what the Bible is and what is its place in the life of an Orthodox Christian, correcting many Protestant misconceptions along the way. Issues covered include inspiration, inerrancy, the formation of the biblical canon, the various texts and their provenance, the place of Scripture within Orthodox Tradition, and how an Orthodox Christian should read, study, and interpret the Bible.

©2022 Stephen De Young (P)2022 Stephen De Young

Brief, informative, unbiased

Informative book, very introductory but full of facts. He doesn't really make strong or surprising arguments or recommendations in this or that direction beyond giving lots of information, so sometimes things went over my head and I didn't quite know what my takeaway should be or how/whether to take a stance. I would have liked for him to go into more depth with certain things but I understand that he focused on giving an overview. Worth listening to for those who haven't yet done much of their own research on the origin of the Bible. He also gives recommended further reading.

Quite revelatory

The book reveals an amazing, complex history that, I suspect, most of us do not realize allows us to open the Bible and read scripture. I am going to be more appreciative of the gift given to me when I do.

Good and informative read.

Father De Young is a goldmine of understanding how the various versions of the bible we have relate to the Greek texts the early church passed around.

Thankfully author read.

Fr. Stephen De Young quickly equips the reader (listener) to approach the scriptures without confused floundering and imposing our own misunderstanding on the text.

A good intro to The Orthodox approach to Scripture

Requires a basic understanding of world and church history, the saints, and the church fathers…. or lots of pausing and googling. However, if you’ve got a basic understanding of that, you can hop right in.

Fr. De Young does do a good job of providing the scriptural basis for the Orthodox understanding and provides good history of the textual development of the Bible and Orthodox. I also appreciated that he was very even keeled when discussing biblical translations, their goals, and biases.

As a Protestant Christian I feel he was very respectful and fair toward the Protestant perspective while explaining the reasons for differing Orthodox perspectives.

Fr. De Young, thank you for sharing your work in such an illuminating and concise volume! It was immensely helpful. Please keep up the good work, and God Bless.