Evolution in the Bible: An Integral Overview of the Hebrew Scriptures

by Pat Veenema

Order a paperback and e-book copy at Balboa Press

Order your Kindle copy at Amazon and start reading today!

At Unity Institute & Seminary, I learned a whole new way of reading the Hebrew Bible: through an evolutionary lens. My recent study of the Bible had exposed myth after myth, and I felt uncertain to how to view this book that had meant so much to me and had influenced the world so profoundly. The method my mentor Evelyn “EJ” Niles developed and shared with her students is what redirected my rather dismal attitude about the Bible.

I chose to use the word “Integral” to describe this method. Taking an integral approach means that we are able to “see” another person’s worldview without judgment. We know we’ve been there, done that, and we accept that wherever anyone is in their journey is right for them at that time. Our integral practice is to release judgments toward or about that “other” person. As we grow through the natural stages of life, we build our identify around judgments: “this, not that,” and “me, not you.” When we are done with all that ego development, we begin the second part of life, the release of egoic judgments. This is the integral practice.

My book employs two tools that we need to take an evolutionary look at the Bible: the Documentary Hypothesis and Spiral Dynamics. In simple conversational narrative, I invite readers to come along in the journey of discovering how these two tools explain a whole lot of unexplained redundancies, immoralities, and seemingly silly rules imposed on the people.

I went down a lot of “rabbit holes” as I researched this topic, adding details and context that EJ hadn’t had time to show us, hoping that you will find it helpful to your process of reconciling with the Bible and that you’ll discover an opportunity to free yourself from negativity around it. I’m very excited about the possibilities for this book not only in the Unity movement but in many church discussion groups in the English speaking world and beyond.

My thanks to many people who listened, gave feedback, supported in every way as I worked through the book-writing journey.

Thanks to cover illustrator and Unity student Tracie Loux. Thanks to Jon Freeman, my Spiral Dynamics instructor out of England who wrote the wonderful foreword. Thanks to Doris, my editor who was so very helpful and supportive. Deepest thanks to EJ Niles for developing the ideas behind the book, and her Spiral Pathways ministry for supporting me while I wrote these chapters.

~Rev Pat Veenema

Order your Kindle copy at Amazon and start reading today!

Order a paperback copy at Balboa Press (eventually, Amazon will carry the paperback, too.)