As someone who has a secular fascination with religion and its interplay with history, I don't think reading the Bible has the same value that the author thinks

As someone who has a secular fascination with religion and its interplay with history, I don't think reading the Bible has the same value that the author thinks it does. Most people who get really into bible scholarship don't go read the bible -> become a Christian. It's nearly universally the other way around. If you are religious, reading a holy text feels meaningful and profound. Meaningfulness and profundity being hallmarks of a good religious experience, they become convinced if more people simply read their holy text, more people would convert. Problem is, that's not how this works. If you aren't already primed to find it profound, it's a pretty dull read that's about half "I know this part already through cultural osmosis" and the rest split between "too boring for anyone to really care about" and "directly contradictory to other parts, and there probably have been historical schisms about it". It's worth reading in the same way any other cultural touchstone work is worth reading, but if you're going to force yourself to get through a long, dry text that has fundamentally steered the course of history, I'd recommend some Hegel first.