Sources and Companions · Liked But Not Read: The Meme Verses That Replaced the Actual Ones

Liked But Not Read does not exist in isolation. The following voices shaped its thinking, and each deserves to be named.

The Scripture itself is the primary source and the primary corrective. Every argument in this book returns to the passage — not to the commentators on the passage, not to the tradition around the passage, but to the words on the page in their context. The NET Bible Second Edition is the translation used throughout. The author holds a license granted July 1, 2026, by David Austin, Permission Director, Biblical Studies Press.

Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth — the clearest introduction in print to reading different genres of Scripture as what they actually are rather than as a uniform collection of timeless promises. The genre argument in Chapter Six (Proverbs) draws directly on their framing.

Eugene Peterson, Eat This Book — on the practice of reading Scripture slowly and formatively rather than extractively. His insistence that the Bible is not a quarry to be mined for useful verses but a country to be inhabited gave language to what this book is attempting.

N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope — the reconstruction of shalom as comprehensive restoration rather than disembodied peace runs along the lines Wright established in his work on resurrection and new creation.

Scot McKnight, The King Jesus Gospel — on the reduction of the gospel to a transaction and the recovery of the full proclamation, which is the background to several chapters here.

Richard Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament — the argument about 1 Corinthians 13 in its context of community formation draws on Hays's reading of Paul's ethical reasoning.

The author is grateful to each of these companions, and to the pastors, teachers, and early readers who pressed back, asked harder questions, and insisted on the room over the photograph.

Soli Deo Gloria