Robert A. Butterfield

I'm a retired United Church of Christ pastor who also served twice as a Presbyterian Church (USA) mission co-worker, first in Brazil and then in Portugal. My Ph.D. is in Biblical Studies (emphasis Hebrew Bible). My main interest is in the Bible as literature, but I've found that one cannot fully appreciate it as literature without relating its texts to historical events. Hence the importance of understanding Israel's real history, as distinct from what the Hebrew Bible chooses to tell the reader about Israel's history. Once one recognizes the difference between these two histories---the real and the largely invented---one can begin to appreciate the greatness of the biblical authors' literary imagination.

Because I've worked in Japan, Brazil, Portugal, France, and Italy, as well as in a variety of settings in the U.S., and because my family is quite multi-ethnic and multi-cultural, I interpret the Bible in a radical ecumenical spirit.