Is the Bible the literal word of God or a collection of stories, poems, and prohibitions whipped into shape by a team of editor-priests? In How to Read the Bible, James Kugel enters the fray, exploring these radically different readings and trying to find a place for himself as both a modern scholar and an observant Jew. A longtime professor at Harvard, Kugel is also the author of The Bible As It Was; he now directs the Institute for the History of the Jewish Bible at Bar-Ilan University.
Recorded Monday, February 11, 2008 at The Newberry Library.