Mikhail Bakhtin argues that Dostoevsky was a better writer than Tolstoy because of dialogue.  The characters in Dostoevsky’s works exhibited real objections and had real interactions with each other.  There was no dominant or authoritative voice.  Each character had a real voice and real objections.  Tolstoy on the otherhand had a clear character whose voice was “the right” voice.  The other characters existed merely to prop up “the right” voice.

I think that’s what so beautiful about the bible.  The bible is dialogic.  It has real voices in it.  It has real objections and deals with real people.  Biblical heroes aren’t spotless.  They came through all that sin to discover God for who he is.  Each had a unique perspective.  It wasn’t just God telling us rules.  That’s the beauty of narrative in the bible and that’s why it was constructed like it was.  It was written by so many different people from different perspectives.  Each discovered God in a real way.

There is no book on earth like the bible.  I’ve read a good number of books now, and NOTHING compares to it.