Practicing Midrash

“This intriguing book takes readers through the bumpy road of Scripture. They traverse conflict, confrontation, and contradiction. They encounter life and death, blessings and curses, all in the pursuit of more excellent ways. Congregations and individuals will profit from pursuing this challenging journey.”


—Phyllis Trible, author of Feminist Approaches to the Bible (1995)





“Learning to read like rabbis means not seeking to resolve all the apparent conflicts by reducing divergent texts to a single meaning. Instead, it offers the opportunity to confront a fuller sense of meanings. It is a reminder, as Pilgrim Father John Robinson said, that every time we read, ‘the Lord has more truth and light yet to break forth out of the word.’”


—Curtis W. Freeman, Duke University Divinity School





“With insightful questions and a clear writing style the book addresses understandings of the biblical text—which inform how one thinks theologically about God, one another, and our role as Christians in the world today. . . . Those who connect in dialogue with these texts will find themselves engaging in holy conversations, building bridges across divides, and relating to theological difference with newfound understanding and appreciation.”


—Paula Dempsey, Director of Partnership Relations, Alliance of Baptists





“Tim Moore’s book . . . is a timely and welcomed resource. He cogently and carefully explains the disparate positions that sit side by side on the pages of the Bible and by helping us to engage in midrash, he makes space for us to hold these texts in tension and to resist the tendency to harmonize them. I hope that this text will . . . help us all to see that our Lord is much larger than the narrow theological perspectives into which we far too often seek to force our God.”


—Rodney Sadler, Union Presbyterian Seminary