Worst Book Ever

Here's a perfect example of the kind of bad theology being published today.  Basically it says that 1.  the Bible is not the inerrant Word of God, 2. We have been misunderstanding the Bible for more than 20 centuries, 3. Not only does the Bible not mean what it says, in fact, it means the opposite of what it says. 4, and SURPRISE -- it advocates a militant feminist agenda.  If there were not people in mainline churches who took things like this seriously, we could merely pass it off as more misguided isogesis. Sadly, many will take this aberration as warrant to jettison traditional Christian belief and ethics, and think that Ronny M-L has led us all to a new revelation.  To wit:

The Mystery of Eve and Adam: A Prophetic Critique of the Monarchy By Ron Moe-Lobeda

Book Description: What if the story of Eve and Adam was not meant to be a story about creation and the origin of life? What if Eve and Adam were not personifications of all women and men? What if the curse on the woman had nothing to do with the physical pain of giving birth? What if working by the sweat of the brow was a description of the slavery that existed under the monarchy? What if being cast out of the garden of Eden was a metaphor for the deportation of people from Judah to Babylon?

The author of this book takes readers on a journey of inquiry leading to the conclusion that the story of Eve and Adam was authored by the theological school of Jeremiah in order to dissuade the Judean people never to reinstate the monarchy after their return from Babylon—a monarchy that previously was responsible for so much infant mortality, subjugation of women, and enslavement of its own people. At the heart of this journey is the discovery that Eve and Adam actually are metaphors for Israel and Judah—two nations that chose to have a king like other nations and suffered the consequences.     What if indeed!  What if Adam and Eve were really Ba'al and Asherah?  Hey, if you are making metaphors, anything goes.  You have to love Walter Brueggeman's (a once reputable scholar) "Endorsements & Review" which actually says nothing nothing positive about the book, unless you think a scholarly work described as a "kaleidoscope" is a good thing.  Might have been nice if the end result of the work was described as inspiring, educational, or faithful rather than "The result is that readers must allow great room for each other."  Talk about "damning with faint praise." To wit: "Moe-Lobeda has taken sharp notice of the diverse genres of literary expression in the Old Testament; he has matched that with a diversity of historical circumstances reflected in the text. The outcome is a kaleidoscopic survey of the many lenses of the Bible, a range that gives readers much freedom and that refuses every absolutism about the text. The result is that readers must allow great room for each other."

—Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary
  So the early chapters of Genesis have nothing to do with creation, procreation or family life.  Moe-Lobeda has given us human origins with "no-libido!"  Stay away from this one.