Review by hanna_r -- Who Told You That You Were Naked?

[hanna_r]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Who Told You That You Were Naked?" by William Combs.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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William E. Combs’ Who Told You That You Were Naked? A Refreshing Reexamination of the Garden of Eden is a thought-provoking approach to the questions of sin and faith, sadly still unable to omit dogmatic aspects in certain parts of the text. In the first chapters of the book the author summarizes the well-known biblical story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, while also presenting the generally known theological explanations of it. Then he introduces a new perspective from which the biblical text can be interpreted. In the second half of the book he connects the story from the Old Testament with the New Testament through this new lens, highlighting the importance and use of this reexamination.

One of the strengths of the book is that it uses quotations from the Bible and examines them, also reflecting on the impediments of the translation of the original Hebrew text. The author highlights some points where the translation is not completely accurate or differs from the original meaning and he points out certain aspects which make the common theological interpretations questionable. Later he builds his own viewpoint on the actual contents of the biblical texts.

Another positive aspect is the use of illustrative stories and parallels to make the analysis more accessible for the reader. By also including some of his own experiences in certain chapters, the author creates a proximity with the reader which makes the text easier to follow and more enjoyable. Even though this is true to most of these narratives, it needs to be mentioned that some of the chapters feel a bit overcharged with them, and some of the stories also seem too exaggerated.

Even though the author’s understanding of sin and our relationship to it is indeed gripping and genuine, his argumentation becomes rather shallow and restricted by the dogmatic Christian discourse when it comes to the New Testament. In these cases the well thought-out analysis of the story from Genesis is replaced by a writing style that often lacks logical reasoning or one that uses certain biblical elements as axioms without leaving any space for other approaches, and this is the aspect that I disliked most about the book.

The author includes some study questions at the end of each chapter, which can be a nice way to encourage the reader to retrace the freshly read parts. However the questions become suggestive and too directive in the later chapters of the book, giving it a disturbing ‘elementary-school-book’ touch.

I rate this book two out of four stars as the second part of the book didn’t fulfill my expectations after the promising first few chapters. Even though I found the approach presented in the beginning truly refreshing and I enjoyed the detailed analysis of the creation myth, the chapters dealing with the New Testament undermined my reading experience as they were less consistent, the line of thought often became confusing and the reasoning felt forced, with weakly connected or ungrounded arguments.

For people who read books in similar topics out of intellectual curiosity I would only recommend the chapters dealing with the Old Testament. At the same time I think that the book might be an eye-opening reading for believers being in doubt about their conduct of life or their understanding of their everyday actions, as it introduces a mindful and self-reflexive way to relate to sin, instead of approaching the Bible as a set of rules and examples that need to be followed without thinking. For this reason I think it might also be an interesting complementary reading for religion classes.

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Who Told You That You Were Naked?
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