“The iconic idea of the Bible as a book of black-and-white answers,” wrote Beal, “encourages us to remain in a state of spiritual immaturity. . . . In turning readers away from the struggle, from wrestling with the rich complexity of biblical literature and its history, in which there are no easy answers, it perpetuates an adolescent faith. It keeps us out of the deep end, where we have to ‘ride these monsters down,’ as Annie Dillard put it, trusting that it’s not about the end product but the process.”8
