Download or read book The Violence of Scripture written by Eric A. Seibert and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No one can read far in the Old Testament without encountering numerous acts of violence that are sanctioned in the text and attributed to both God and humans. Over the years, these texts have been used to justify all sorts of violence: from colonizing people and justifying warfare, to sanctioning violence against women and children. Eric Seibert confrons the problem of "virtuous" violence and urges people to engage in an ethically responsible reading of these troublesome texts. He offers a variety of reading strategies designed to critique textually sanctioned violence, while still finding ways to use even the most difficult texts constructively, thus providing a desperately needed approach to the violence of Scripture that can help us live more peaceably in a world plagued by religious violence. --from publisher description

Download or read book The Violence of the Biblical God written by L. Daniel Hawk and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2019-01-08 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can we make sense of violence in the Bible? Joshua commands the people of Israel to wipe out everyone in the promised land of Canaan, while Jesus commands God’s people to love their enemies. How are we to interpret biblical passages on violence when it is sanctioned at one point and condemned at another? The Violence of the Biblical God by L. Daniel Hawk presents a new framework, solidly rooted in the authority of Scripture, for understanding the paradox of God’s participation in violence. Hawk shows how the historical narrative of the Bible offers multiple canonical pictures for faithful Christian engagement with the violent systems of the world.

Download or read book Violence in Scripture written by Jerome F.D. Creach and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 2013-01-01 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Bible frequently depicts God as angry and violent, and sometimes depicts human violence as positive or even as commanded by God. This forms one of the most vexing problems in approaching Scripture and interpreting the Bible for preaching and teaching today. In this volume, Creach first examines the theological problems of violence and categorizes the types of violence that appear in scripture. He then wrestles with the most important biblical texts on violence to work through specific interpretational issues. This new volume in the Interpretation: Resources for Use of Scripture in the Church series will help preachers and pastors interpret those difficult texts, encouraging them to face violence in the Bible with honesty.

Download or read book Scripture and Violence written by Julia Snyder and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-08-31 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the public sphere, it is often assumed that acts of violence carried out by Muslims are inspired by their religious commitment and encouraged by the Qur’an. Some people express similar concerns about the scriptures and actions of Christians and Jews. Might they be right? What role do scriptural texts play in motivating and justifying violence in these three traditions? Scripture and Violence explores the complex relationship between scriptural texts and real-world acts of violence. A variety of issues are addressed, including the prevalent modern tendency to express more concern about other people’s texts and violence than one’s own, to treat interpretation and application of scriptural passages as self-evident, and to assume that the actions of religious people are directly motivated by what they read in scriptures. Contributions come from a diverse group of scholars of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity with varying perspectives on the issues. Highlighting the complex relationship between texts and human actions, this is an essential read for students and academics studying religion and violence, Abrahamic religions, or scriptural interpretation. Scripture and Violence will also be of interest to researchers working on religion and politics, sociology and anthropology of religion, socio-political approaches to scriptural texts, and issues surrounding religion, secularity, and the public sphere. This volume could also form a basis for discussions in churches, synagogues, mosques, interfaith settings, and government agencies. The editors of Scripture and Violence have also set up a website including lesson plans/discussion guides for the different chapters in the book, available here: https://www.scriptureandviolence.org/scripture-and-violence-book-and-chapter-discussion-guides

Download or read book Uncovering Violence written by Amy Cottrill and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 2021-10-26 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is no surprise that the Bible is filled with stories of violence, having come into being through the crucible of trauma, cultural conflict, and warfare. But the more obvious acts of physical or sexual violence in the Hebrew Bible often overshadow its subtler forms throughout Scripture and belie the variety of perspectives on violence embedded in biblical narratives. This hinders readers' ability to recognize the full spectrum of human engagement with violence, both in texts and in their lived experiences. Uncovering Violence: Reading Biblical Narratives as an Ethical Project seeks to provide a theoretical vocabulary for the various forms that violence can take—including textual violence, interpretive violence, moral injury, and slow violence—and to offer a fresh ethical reading of violence in the biblical text. Focusing on four narratives from the Hebrew Bible, Cottrill uses the approach of narrative ethics to lay out the many ways that stories can make moral claims on readers, not by delivering a discrete "lesson" or takeaway but by making transformative contact with readers and involving them in a more embodied dialogue with the text. Exploring the narratives of Jael’s killing of Sisera, the toxic masculinity of Samson, environmental devastation and failures of legal systems in Ruth, and Abigail’s mediation with King David, Uncovering Violence presents strategies for reading that allow for this close encounter. In doing so, it helps prepare readers to better recognize, interpret, and even respond to violence and its many effects within and beyond the text.

Download or read book Disturbing Divine Behavior written by Eric A. Seibert and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How should we understand biblical texts where God is depicted as acting irrationally, violently, or destructively? If we distance ourselves from disturbing portrayals of God, how should we understand the authority of Scripture? How does the often wrathful God portrayed in the Old Testament relate to the God of love proclaimed in the New Testament? Is that contrast even accurate? Disturbing Divine Behavior addresses these perennially vexing questions for the student of the Bible. Eric A. Seibert calls for an engaged and discerning reading of the Old Testament that distinguishes the particular literary and theological goals achieved through narrative characterizations of God from the rich understanding of the divine to which the Old Testament as a whole points. Providing illuminating reflections on theological reading as well, this book will be a welcome resource for any readers who puzzle over disturbing representations of God in the Bible.

Download or read book Disarming Scripture written by Derek Flood and published by . This book was released on 2014-10-04 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A GOD OF LOVE AND GENOCIDE? For many Christians the problem of violence in Scripture can result in a crisis of faith--especially when we see how such passages have been used throughout history to justify horrific bloodshed in God's name. Moving beyond typical conservative and liberal approaches, which seek to either defend or whitewash over violence in the Bible, Disarming Scripture takes a surprising yet compelling approach: Learning to read the Bible like Jesus did. Along the way the book deals with some very big issues, ranging from passages commanding genocide and infanticide in the Old Testament to passages in the New Testament that have been used to justify slavery, child abuse, and state violence. The take-away is an approach to Scripture that not only sees questioning as an acceptable part of a healthy faith, but as an absolutely essential part of it.

Download or read book The Old Testament Case for Nonviolence written by Matthew Curtis Fleischer and published by . This book was released on 2017-11-28 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: You've heard about the child sacrifice, forced cannibalism, and mass murder. Now get the rest of the story. Fleischer explains the Old Testament like never before, cutting through the popular misperceptions to provide a compelling, scripturally based, and highly readable case for a good, just, and loving God, one who hates violence--and always has. This book will strengthen your faith and equip you to defend it at the same time. End your struggle to appreciate the God of the Old Testament today. Discover a deity who is more beautiful than you have ever imagined. "In the first six pages of his new book, Matthew Curtis Fleischer describes the problem of divine violence in the Old Testament as well as anyone ever has. In the following 200-plus pages, he offers Christians committed to biblical authority an intelligent and humane way of interpreting those passages, leading humanity from violence to nonviolence in the way of Jesus. Fleischer is an attorney, and he makes his case with clarity that would win over any unbiased jury." - Brian D. McLaren, author of The Great Spiritual Migration--Amazon.prime.

Download or read book Bloody Brutal and Barbaric written by William J. Webb and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2019-12-03 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christians cannot ignore the intersection of religion and violence. In our own Scriptures, war texts that appear to approve of genocidal killings and war rape raise hard questions about biblical ethics and the character of God. Have we missed something in our traditional readings? Identifying a spectrum of views on biblical war texts, Webb and Oeste pursue a middle path using a hermeneutic of incremental, redemptive-movement ethics.

Download or read book Sex and Violence in the Bible written by Joseph W. Smith and published by . This book was released on 2014-02-21 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Joseph Smith helps Christians to be discerning about unsavory material. He presents a carefully organized, elegant catalog of Scriptures own graphic passages, clarifying meanings often obscured by time or translation.

Download or read book Jesus and the Violence of Scripture written by John Dominic Crossan and published by SPCK. This book was released on 2015-08-20 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This brave and provocative book grapples with Scripture’s two conflicting visions of Jesus and God – one loving and gracious, and the other punitive and vengeful – and explains how readers can better understand these images in a way that enriches their faith. Many portions of the New Testament introduce a compassionate Jesus who turns the other cheek, loves his enemies, and shows grace to all. But the Jesus we find in Revelation and some portions of the Gospels leads an army of angels bent on earthly destruction. Which is the true revelation of the Messiah—and how can both be in the same Bible? Jesus and the Violence of Scriptureexplores this question and offers guidance for all who are confused about which version of the Lord to worship. In doing so the author demonstrates that writers of different books of the Bible not only possessed different visions of God but also different purposes for writing, and that for Christians the only God worthy of our worship is the one revealed through the words and action of the historical Jesus.

Download or read book The Crucifixion of the Warrior God written by Gregory A. Boyd and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2017-04-17 with total page 1487 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A dramatic tension confronts every Christian believer and interpreter of Scripture: on the one hand, we encounter images of God commanding and engaging in horrendous violence: one the other hand, we encounter the non-violent teachings and example of Jesus, whose loving, self-sacrificial death and resurrection is held up as the supreme revelation of God’s character in the New Testament. How do we reconcile the tension between these seemingly disparate depictions? Are they even capable of reconciliation? Throughout Christian history, many different answers have been proposed, ranging from the long-rejected explanation that these contrasting depictions are of two entirely different ‘gods’ to recent social and cultural theories of metaphor and narrative representation. The Crucifixion of the Warrior God takes up this dramatic tension and the range of proposed answers in an epic constructive investigation. Over two volumes, renowned theologian and biblical scholar Gregory A. Boyd argues that we must take seriously the full range of Scripture as inspired, including its violent depictions of God. At the same time, we must take just as seriously the absolute centrality of the crucified and risen Christ as the supreme revelation of God. Developing a theological interpretation of Scripture that he labels a “cruciform hermeneutic,” Boyd demonstrates how Scripture’s violent images of God are completely reframed and their violence subverted when they are interpreted through the lens of the cross and resurrection. Indeed, when read through this lens, Boyd argues that these violent depictions can be shown to bear witness to the same self-sacrificial character of God that was supremely revealed on the cross.

Download or read book How Not to Read the Bible written by Dan Kimball and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2020-12-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is Reading the Bible the Fastest Way to Lose Your Faith? For centuries, the Bible was called "the Good Book," a moral and religious text that guides us into a relationship with God and shows us the right way to live. Today, however, some people argue the Bible is outdated and harmful, with many Christians unaware of some of the odd and disturbing things the Bible says. Whether you are a Christian, a doubter, or someone exploring the Bible for the first time, bestselling author Dan Kimball guides you step-by-step in how to make sense of these difficult and disturbing Bible passages. Filled with stories, visual illustrations, and memes reflecting popular cultural objections, How (Not) to Read the Bible is a lifeline for individuals who are confused or discouraged with questions about the Bible. It also works great as a small-group study or sermon series.

Download or read book Divine Presence Amid Violence written by Walter Brueggemann and published by Authentic. This book was released on 2020-08-21 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "To pursue the matter of "revelation in context," I will address an exceedingly difficult text in the Old Testament, Joshua 11. The reason for taking up this text is to deal with the often asked and troublesome question: What shall we do with all the violence and bloody war that is done in the Old Testament in the name of Yahweh? The question reflects a sense that these texts of violence are at least an embarrassment, are morally repulsive, and are theologically problematic in the Bible, not because they are violent, but because this is violence either in the name of or at the hand of Yahweh." -from chapter 2

Download or read book This Strange and Sacred Scripture written by Matthew Richard Schlimm and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2015-02-10 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Old Testament can seem strange and disturbing to contemporary readers. What should Christians make of Genesis 1-3, seemingly at odds with modern scientific accounts? Why does the Old Testament contain so much violence? How should Christians handle texts that give women a second-class status? Does the Old Testament contradict itself? Why are so many Psalms filled with anger and sorrow? What should we make of texts that portray God as filled with wrath? Combining pastoral insight, biblical scholarship, and a healthy dose of humility, gifted teacher and communicator Matthew Schlimm explores perennial theological questions raised by the Old Testament. He provides strategies for reading and appropriating these sacred texts, showing how the Old Testament can shape the lives of Christians today and helping them appreciate the Old Testament as a friend in faith.

Download or read book God Is a Man of War written by Stephen De Young and published by Ancient Faith Publishing. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Infanticide. Holy war. Divine wrath. Violence in the Old Testament has long been a stumbling block for Christians and skeptics alike. Yet conventional efforts to understand this violence-whether by downplaying it as allegory or a relic of primitive cultures, or by dismissing the authority of Scripture altogether-tend to raise more questions than they answer. God Is a Man of War offers a fresh interpretation of Old Testament accounts of violence by exploring them through the twofold lens of Orthodox tradition and historical context. Father Stephen De Young examines what these difficult passages reveal about the nature of Christ and His creation, bearing witness to a world filled not only with pain and suffering-often of human making-but also with the love of God.

Download or read book Violence in the Hebrew Bible written by Jacques van Ruiten and published by Oudtestamentische Studiën, Old. This book was released on 2020 with total page 438 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In Violence in the Hebrew Bible scholars reflect on texts of violence in the Hebrew Bible, as well as their often problematic reception history. Authoritative texts and traditions can be rewritten and adapted to new circumstances and insights. Texts are subject to a process of change. The study of the ways in which these (authoritative) biblical texts are produced and/or received in various socio-historical circumstances discloses a range of theological and ideological perspectives. In reflecting on these issues, the central question is how to allow for a given text's plurality of possible and realised meanings while also retaining the ability to form critical judgments regarding biblical exegesis. This volume highlight that violence in particular is a fruitful area to explore this tension"--