Catholic writer encourages reading the Bible in a version made with humor and respect

The Spanish Catholic writer María Vallejo-Nágera has written the first volume of The Bible for Dummiesan attempt to bring sacred texts closer to ordinary Christians “from a point of mischief and humor, but with absolute respect and love.”

Vallejo-Nágera starts from a revealing personal experience. Eight years ago he was studying at Harvard University when he realized his lack of biblical knowledge: “I was shocked to see that my classmates (all Protestants) knew the Bible by heart. Me, very Catholic and whatever you want, but I had no idea. “I had not read it nor had I been encouraged to read it.”

Thus, his latest work wants to respond to the fact that the faithful are scared “by the difficulty of reading it and prefer to read other easier things,” as he explains to ACI Prensa.

“The priests, during the last generations, have not explained the Bible to us, they have not made us understand it. In the parishes there were no Bible classes,” laments the writer, who nevertheless recognizes that “now things, thank God, are changing.”

“We have fallen asleep on the topic of reading the Bible like idiots… now it’s time to wake up,” he summarizes.

Confirming oneself without having read the Bible is “absurd” for the author

For the writer, those who have received the gift of faith have “an immense responsibility”: to present God in a simple way “not with large grandiose vocabularies and convoluted theologies” because, in her opinion, the citizen on the street “is fed up with the scholars whom he does not understand.”

The series of books that Vallejo-Nágera is now beginning to publish under the generic title of The Bible for dummies, whose first volume covers from Adam and Eve to Abraham, “is not suitable for children. It is a book for adults or young fools”, from the age of 15 or 16, whose only additional requirement is to have “a desire to understand the ins and outs of the Bible”.

In any case, the author emphasizes, “please do not let anyone confirm themselves without having read the Bible first. It’s absurd.”

Due to the humorous tone of his work, Vallejo-Nágera does not miss the opportunity to issue a warning: “If there is any rabid theologian who finds disrespect in my book, he is a poor man. Warning from now on: the book is not for wise and egotistical theologians. It’s for biblical dummies.”

And who is a “biblical idiot” for the author? “Anyone who has not read it (regardless of being an atheist or a Buddhist believer or whatever they want to be),” he specifies to ACI Prensa.

Many theologians “have not known how to lower themselves to the Catholic spiritual rube”

In conversation with ACI Prensa, María Vallejo-Nágera also admits to being “a bit of a fool” in the faith: “I have been learning for 25 years, little by little, and every time I fall more in love with God, my Church and the Bible ”.

However, he denounces that many theologians and priests “have convoluted my information, have not known how to lower themselves to the Catholic spiritual rube and only listen to themselves, boring the masses.”

However, he adds, “I have also met (not many) holy priests, true followers of Christ who reflect him on every side. “I thank God for each one of them and bless them a million times.”

Who is María Vallejo-Nágera?

Born in Madrid in 1964, María Vallejo-Nágera has a degree in Philosophy and Educational Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid. In 2017 he traveled to Harvard University, where he studied Advanced Biblical Studies. In addition, he is a specialist in Biblical Spirituality from the Comillas Pontifical University.

Since her conversion following a visit to Medjugorje in 2000 at the invitation of two Anglican friends, she experienced a conversion that has been reflected in many of her 15 works, some of which have been translated into English, French, Portuguese and Polish.

She is married, lives in Madrid and is the mother of three children and grandmother of 6 grandchildren.