The Blue Parakeet, 2nd Edition

Rethinking How You Read the Bible

By: Scot McKnight

Narrated by: Tom Parks

Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

Accompanying quizzes are available in the audiobook companion PDF download.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2018 Scot McKnight (P)2020 Zondervan

Not a scholarly work...

I don't disagree with the author's conclusions, particularly those about women in ministry. I have long sought a scholarly work to make this case. This is not it. The author establishes numerous strawmen about what "everyone" thinks and then proceeds to tear them down in a way that places himself as the inerrant judge of truth. In his attempt to assert his position as sole arbiter, his arguments typically refute "everyone, nobody, never and always." He condemns reading scripture out of context then creates whole blankets out of individual threads. For example, Phoebe is mentioned once in the NT and discussed in two verses, but to this author she is the emissary to all the house churches of Rome. What he wishes were true he embellishes or at worst fabricates. I am for an increased role for women in the manner of their gifting as I am for men. Works such as this don't advance the argument. One final remark. The authors favorite statement is "God spoke in (Insert name's) days in (insert name's) ways. This is thread to easily extended to say, "the Bible means what I say it means". That is an all to present view in today's church.

This Works

McKnight's metaphor works in a number of ways because we all have those Bible passages that cause us to struggle. A large section of the book uses the case study of women in ministry, which certainly qualifies as one of those types of passages.

great book

I'd recommend this book to anyone. if you are not engaged in academics, this book will be stimulating, and I hope it helps you reconsider things! If you are engaged in academics, it's a very light book

pragmatic at best heresy at worst?

love the beginning struggle to finish. I don't even disagree with his premise the hermeneutics to get to where he wanted to be though was very pragmatic.

example a. author claims that the Bible is story meant to progress from start to end and therefore are understanding and interpretation of it should progress from start to end. this is an oversimplification of course but his point was or one of his main points that he circled back to multiple times was that in Genesis God said that the woman's desire should be for her husband's position and the husband shall rule over her. he said that this was a result of the curse but in the New Kingdom there will be no male and female they'll be equal blah blah blah blah and so are our role as the church here today is to progressively move towards the eternal view he's saying that God did not make that a command in Genesis but rather it was part of the curse and the church should be working to override.

the author circle back to these verses multiple times but never once touched on the verses in the New testament that talked about Christ being the head of the church just like the man is the head of his wife and God being the head of Christ. and again I don't even disagree with his premise I just think to make these claims without addressing these verses here is pragmatic at best. and my real issues to hear starts coming when the Bible starts comparing God and Christ to the church as the husband to his wife and I think when you start making such leaps without addressing these verses you could even be entering into the realm of heresy.

the author claims that Mary the mother of Jesus must have been an incredibly intelligent and active woman early on in the life of Jesus before his public ministry because of the way you know she raised Jesus and God picture to raise Jesus and then also she raised James she turned out to be of you know fantastic Church leader. however the author never addresses the fact that the Bible talks about how jesus's own family with the exception of Mary did not believe he was Jesus so even though he uses James becoming a church leader as evidence for Mary's astuteness and teaching he never addresses the fact that James himself probably did not believe Jesus was Christ until his resurrection. again pragmatic at best. in fact almost every single example he used was stretched a little bit some of them much more than others.

I love the thought visual process the visual image of a Blue parakeet and I think that all of us should be looking for the quote unquote blue parakeets as we read scripture and that is a helpful visual tool.

Thought provoking

The most compelling argument presented by McKnight had to be his view on equality and unity in the Garden and the Kingdom of Heaven. His observation on how we all pick and choose what to follow in the Bible feels confrontational yet accurate. I appreciate how McKnight kept God’s nature and the Kingdom Jesus preached on most along with the entire Biblical text at the forefront.

Informative

I especially enjoyed his thoughtful presentation of how women have been silenced. This should be most reading for the church as a whole.

Clear and compelling

I love the way the author articulates what often remains unspoken about how we read the Bible.

It’s well researched and clear. It’s obvious a long time professor wrote it—you can hear the light hearted and jovial way he likely teaches including a hearty serving of puns and dad jokes. The appendixes are some of the best parts of the text.

Negatives- The main text gets a little repetitive. And the narration was pretty grating.

Great Read.

Simply excellent work. Content clearly laid out thru the book. I’ve learned so much and I am now compelled to continue the research and study of the content this book has introduced to me.

Excellent!

Wonderful book! He does great in diving into deep issues without losing the readers attention. I found the challenge to our typical reading of the scriptures both insightful and encouraging! Looking forward to digging into the Bible with a fresh perspective!

really good

I really appreciated this book. If you are set in your belief system and don't want to move from your position , this book most probably isn't for you. if you want to be challenged and forced to rethink what you believe this could be what you are looking for. I really enjoyed it and will definitely listen and re-read the book at a later date just to keep me on my toes

Nothing worthwhile here

Found this by recommendation of Tim Mackie - Promising idea for a book, but the author spends a long time not really saying anything and repeating himself ad nauseam. The vapidness hit a peak at the missional listening section so abandoned the book there- if there was any value after that, the author would do well to make some significant cuts in future editions.