Biblical Outlaws: What the Bible’s Most Despised Characters Can Teach Us (hardcover)

A revelatory exploration of how the Bible’s underdogs, outlaws, and forgotten figures can teach us about our humanity

In this unprecedented book, a secular humanist and celebrated scholar of religion tells the stories of the Bible’s most marginalized figures, challenging readers to reconsider who are the heroes of the text, and who are the villains. What happens when such figures as Lot’s Wife, Job’s Wife, Nimrod, “Doubting” Thomas, and the cursed disciple Judas take center stage? What happens if the Bible is read to privilege the margins of life, where the most socially questionable and ignored are found?

In asking and answering these questions, Anthony B. Pinn finds important lessons in the hidden corners of scripture, in the dark places, and among the despised figures who have a troubled relationship with a troubling world. Freeing these figures to offer their version of events, this book encourages a reading of the Bible against the Bible. Pinn argues that there are life-affirming lessons to learn from these marginalized figures. Something important about our humanity is illustrated not by the Bible’s heroes but by those we tend to forget or discredit.