What happens when we read the Bible? Why do we read it? What does it do to us?

There are at least as many answers as there are people. Our interpretations of the Bible depend not only on what we read—which texts, which translations, etc.—but how and especially with whom we read it. 

On this episode, professor of spirituality—and editor of the Commonweal Podcast—David Dault joins associate editor Griffin Oleynick to discuss the ethics of reading the Bible, detailed in his new book The Accessorized Bible.

Core to Dault’s argument are the Jewish concepts of tikkun olam, or repairing the world, and tzniut, indicating modesty. Reading—and even willfully misreading—the Bible with these in mind can help commit us to liberation instead of coercion, to peacemaking rather than violence. 

For further reading:

• Christian Wiman on the Bible as poetry
• Luke Timothy Johnson on the history of the Bible
• Sarah Ruden on translating the Bible