Daniel McClellan, "The Bible Says So: What We Get Right (and Wrong) About Scripture’s Most Controversial Issues" (St. Martin's Essentials, 2025)

In this episode of NBN Book of the Day, host Schneer Zalman-Newfield interviews Dan McClellan, author of 'The Bible Says So: What We Get Right (and Wrong) About Scripture’s Most Controversial Issues' (St. Martin's Essentials, 2025). McClellan, a public scholar with over a million social media followers and a PhD from the University of Exeter, shares his journey from a Mormon missionary to a leading voice in public biblical scholarship. He argues that the Bible is not a monolithic, self-consistent text but a collection of diverse writings shaped by historical, cultural, and interpretive contexts. Drawing on cognitive linguistics and historical criticism, McClellan challenges foundational dogmas like inerrancy, inspiration, and univocality, emphasizing that meaning is constructed by readers rather than inherent in the text. He uses metaphors like 'Lego blocks' instead of 'jigsaw puzzles' to illustrate how people actively build meaning from biblical passages, often to serve ideological ends. The discussion covers key controversial topics—creation ex nihilo, slavery, abortion, and homosexuality—where McClellan contends the Bible does not clearly affirm or condemn these issues as modern audiences often assume. He critiques the misapplication of biblical texts to justify political or moral positions, urging critical engagement over dogmatic citation. His core message: 'data over dogma'—prioritizing scholarly evidence over tradition or ideology in interpreting Scripture. McClellan’s approach is rooted in historical-critical methodology, which seeks to understand texts in their original contexts rather than as timeless authorities. He highlights how modern interpretations are shaped by hidden assumptions about canon, manuscripts, and translation. For example, he shows that 'creation out of nothing' is a later theological development, not a biblical doctrine, and that the Bible never explicitly calls slavery or abortion immoral. On homosexuality, he argues that ancient prohibitions were rooted in social hierarchy and gender roles, not modern concepts of sexual orientation. By exposing the interpretive frameworks behind biblical claims, McClellan aims to empower readers to think critically and resist manipulative uses of Scripture. The episode concludes with a call for humility, transparency, and intellectual honesty in how we engage with one of the world’s most influential books.