An Analysis of Daniel Doriani 's "Putting the Truth to Work"

Applying the lessons learned in the Bible can be challenging for many, especially those who are less religious. For those people, or anyone interested in learning the application of these lessons, Daniel Doriani has provided a novel that makes this relatively simple. This is not Doriani's first book. This book, "Putting the Truth to Work," is actually something of a continuation of his other book on the application of the Bible, "Getting the Message: A Plan for Interpreting and Applying the Bible." "Putting the Truth to Work," however, focuses much more on specific passage meanings, and is thus, much more accessible for most people.

The author has been a preacher for fifteen years, which helps to give a sagely quality to the analyses found between the pages of this book. In fact, Doriani says that the book was written simply because he himself had a need for the information and lessons therein. The Bible can be a tricky book to understand, but Doriani helps to put these passages into perspective. This book, quite simply is an aide to anyone who needs help with the application of Bible passages, and can be used by newcomers to the Bible, all the way up to preachers looking to have some new light shed on passages that they know and love. The book makes a point out of taking complicated portions of the Bible and, through simple analogies and the like, making them relevant and much easier to understand in modern society. "Putting the Truth to Work" also helps to point out to the reader some sections of the Bible that are cryptic and helps to put them into terms that anyone can understand. In that respect, this book is something of a translator's guide for the Bible. Although many people can read the Bible and understand the passages therein, it is always helpful to have a guide of sorts to help sift through some of the foggier portions of it.

One of the most important aspects of this book is the fact that it very often delves into the issue of ethics. For example, one of the passages in the book mentions the charging of interest on loans to Israelites, if the loaner himself is an Israelite. The book makes a point to educate the reader that these sort of seemingly black and white quagmires of living a moral life are not as simple as they appear. The book explores many similar conundrums throughout its 300+ pages, and the ethics portion is so important because it teaches the reader to understand that Bible passages are more than simple text. They are, themselves ethical conundrums, oftentimes with no real right or wrong answer, and thus, it is left to the reader to decide who is truly in the right, if anyone is at all. He also gives examples for technology that was invented after the final version of the Bible was printed, which is quite a lot of technology. For example, he discusses proper etiquette when dealing with telephone solicitors. He gives two views of the issue, with view 1 saying "they are rude, since they deliberately call at meal-time, and deceitful, for they often conceal their intent. Therefore we owe them nothing" (Doriani 1).View 1 suggests ultimately disregarding the operators, as they are as annoying pests, God would have no trouble forgiving you for it. View 2 takes a more saintly approach to telephone solicitors. This view states that solicitors are simply trying to make a living, and that they hate making the calls as much as families do listening to them. View 2 also says that, like all humans, God created these solicitors in his image, and to treat them as such. Once again, Doriani helps to make some of these conundrums, many of which are not addressed fully in the Bible, much easier for laymen to understand.

Another aspect of the book is that it analyzes some of the debatable issues in the Bible. Masculinity, for example, is an aspect of much debate, especially in the Bible. Does God favor a man who is tough, or one who is sensitive and knows how to cry? Doriani addresses these issues, but, perhaps more importantly encourages acceptance of even what would be considered the "inferior" side, as this is what the Lord would want. Doriani also helps the reader to understand the relevance of third party "interpreters" such as preachers by breaking it down into three parts: the text, the audience, and the interpreter. For example, during a church service, the Bible being read by a preacher is the text, the church-goers are the audience, and the preacher is the interpreter. The key element here is the interpreter, as the preacher (or parent reading the Bible to a child, or whomever the interpreter might be) must be knowledgeable enough about any given passage in the Bible to not only preach about it, but be able to answer any questions the audience might have about it. To this end, Doriani stresses the need for the text to exercise authority over the interpreter, but also for the interpreter to understand all aspects of the important passages in the Bible (8). The best way for the interpreter to do this is to simply learn from many sources, including this book, life lessons, as well as the audience themselves.

Chapter 3 of the book expands on this concept, and explains that truly understanding the Bible takes more than simple memorization. Doriani mentions the need for certain character traits, such as having strong faith, and being courageous, as very important aspects for those wishing to truly understand the Bible. Many people, Doriani says, do not truly understand the principles in any given Bible entry. They may understand the meaning of a text, but in order to truly understand a passage, it is necessary to examine it in the context it was created in during the time period the Bible was written in. Doriani helps the reader with a few examples of this (such as the aforementioned charging interest on loans to Israelites). Of course, he cannot do this with each and every passage in the Bible, but Doriani does give the reader the necessary tools to understand the context within which a Bible verse was written, and how to apply that context to everyday life.

Another way that Doriani helps to put Bible verses into practical application is by analyzing and putting into new light the well-known passages and verses in the Bible. For example, he examines the passage which reads "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true Gog, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent" (John 17:3), and helps to put it into perspective for the average reader by saying that "The goal of our redemption is to make us more and more like God, and ever more like Christ, who is the perfect image of God...Yet many Christians act as if there were another center of application...But we must remember that the center of the law is God himself" (Doriani 13-14). These analyses are designed to make the reader rethink the way they originally perceived some of the more well-known passages in the Bible. Again, Doriani does not perform these analyses on every passage, but shows the reader that, oftentimes, these popular passages are misinterpreted or just flat out taken out of context, and how to re-examine these passages in a new light.

The book does have its flaws, however. Most notably, it is not very easy to understand, despite the fact that it seems to be appealing to just about any Bible reading demographic. Much of the language Doriani uses is cryptic, and, much of the time, Doriani gets far too bogged down into details, and seems to lose sight of the big picture during many points of the book. In addition, Doriani lists four main components of application (character, discernment, duty, and goals), but these are far too subjective to be applicable in any real capacity. The whole point of the book is to make understanding the Bible easier for people, not to break it down into vague categories that the layman would have trouble understanding. Lastly, although this point is somewhat subjective, Doriani seems to rely far too much on outside sources in order to get his point across. At many points in the book, the pages will be filled with references for minor snippets of information found in the page. While this is not a large issue, it does detract from the reading experience somewhat and also limits the amount of actual precious content in the book.

With all of this said, the book is, nevertheless, an eye-opening spin on Bible passages. It is interesting to approach this book with the mindset of one who thinks they have a firm understanding of at least the more popular portions of the Bible, only to have these understandings questioned by the new and interesting spins he puts on Bible passages. This book is definitely made to make the reader think, especially regarding the reader's own preconceived notions. In doing so, it helps to make many Bible verses applicable to daily life, because the reader will have a more thorough understanding of them. Doriani certainly has a knack for taking complex information and making it accessible but, perhaps more importantly, he is able to take what once seemed to be simple passages and put an entirely new spin on them for the reader to chew on.

To that end, the book certainly makes good on its promise to put Bible passages into practical application, such as the examples Doriani listed about things like telemarketers, and whether or not God would approve of simply ignoring them. Perhaps most importantly, Doriani delves heavily into the issue of ethics, especially in some of the more well-known Bible passages. Doriani also helps to "update" many of the passages in the Bible by giving the reader a general idea of the moral of each passage, even if some of the language in a passage may be cryptic. All of these measures help to make reading the Bible much easier for beginners, and, for those who already know the Bible like the back of their hand, it helps to put a new perspective on the passages therein, and encourages looking at these passages from a different mindset, which is beneficial for just about anybody.

Work Cited

Doriani, Daniel. Putting Truth to Work: The Theory and Practice of Biblical Application. P&R Publishing, 2001.