In her third volume of Is the Bible a Dangerous Book, Beryl Lavender explores the relevance for the 21st Century of the biblical books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Songs. She shows how the depression and anxiety that biblical authors endured during times of upheaval and distress, speak directly to us, and how we, like them, can rediscover confidence and joy by turning to God. She also addresses, in the first part of this volume and in the conclusion, criticisms levelled at Christianity and the Bible, and shows how most of them are unfounded or distort the truth.
South African born Beryl Lavender is a former journalist and teacher of English and Divinity, now living in Buckinghamshire in the United Kingdom. This is the third in her series of biblical commentaries. The first was the ‘The Story of the Torah’ published in 2017, and the second was ‘The Broken Contract’ published in 2018. She is currently working on her last commentary on The Old Testament, covering the prophetic books from ‘Isaiah’ to ‘Malachi.’