Download or read book Violence Terror Genocide and War in the Holy Books and in the Decades Ahead New Psychological and Sociological Insights on How the Old Testament written by Timothy Philip Schwartz-Barcott and published by Teneo Press. This book was released on 2018-09-17 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the last few decades, dozens of books have been published about whether, and how, the "holy books" and specific passages in the "holy books" inspire, promote, and justify acts of terrorism and war. Many of the authors of these books are scholars of religion, religious leaders, journalists, and people who have a limited point of view, a particular theory to support, or a political purpose that limits their objectivity and thoroughness. Some authors contend that one or more of the holy books essentially are violent books, or that they are books of terror or books of war. Many of these authors focus on a limited number of passages that seem to them to be violent, terroristic, and bellicose. By contrast, other authors focus on a limited number of passages that seem to them to be anti-violent and pacifistic. Some of these authors contend that one or more of the holy books essentially are books of peace. A few authors compare two or more of the holy books regarding the number of violent passages. Often they do so by presenting a few dozen verses that are consistent with their particular point of view. Most authors focus on violent events in the past, and most authors do not provide very specific recommendations for reducing possible acts of "holy book violence" in the decades ahead. This book goes beyond these other books in a number of ways. In order to be as objective and as empirical as possible, it is based on four years of research that uses systematic content analysis to examine every verse in widely available versions of the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Qur'an. It reports the numbers of verses in each holy book--and their corresponding chapters--which portray or refer to acts of physical violence against humans, including acts of interpersonal violence, terror, genocide, battles, and wars. More importantly, this book examines the qualities of the violent acts that are portrayed. Who is portrayed as committing, advocating, threatening, and predicting what kinds of violence? Against whom? When? For what reasons? With what consequences? Written in an engaging and unpretentious style, the results of this most objective and systematic analysis of portrayals of violence in Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Qur'an ever undertaken are highly important if not astonishing. This book is must reading for anyone concerned with religious violence or terrorism.
Download or read book Violence Terror Genocide and War in the Holy Books and the Decades Ahead written by Timothy Philip Swartz-Barcott and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
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 War in the Hebrew Bible written by Susan Niditch and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1995-06-29 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Texts about war pervade the Hebrew Bible, raising challenging questions in religious and political ethics. The war passages that readers find most disquieting are those in which God demands the total annihilation of the enemy without regard to gender, age, or military status. The ideology of the "ban," however, is only one among a range of attitudes towards war preserved in the ancient Israelite literary tradition. Applying insights from anthropology, comparative literature, and feminist studies, Niditch considers a wide spectrum of war ideologies in the Hebrew Bible, seeking in each case to discover why and how these views might have made sense to biblical writers, who themselves can be seen to wrestle with the ethics of violence. The study of war thus also illuminates the social and cultural history of Israel, as war texts are found to map the world views of biblical writers from various periods and settings. Reviewing ways in which modern scholars have interpreted this controversial material, Niditch sheds further light on the normative assumptions that shape our understanding of ancient Israel. More widely, this work explores how human beings attempt to justify killing and violence while concentrating on the tones, textures, meanings, and messages of a particular corpus in the Hebrew Scriptures.
Download or read book Violence in the Hebrew Bible written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-07-27 with total page 450 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.
Download or read book Wrestling with the Violence of God written by M. Daniel Carroll R. and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2015-10-09 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The prevalence of evil and violence in the world is a growing focus of scholarly attention, especially violence done in the name of religion and violence found within the pages of the Old Testament. Many atheists consider this reason enough to reject the notion of a supreme deity. Some Christians attempt to exonerate God by reinterpreting problematic passages or by prioritizing portrayals of God’s nonviolence. Other Christians have begun to respond to violence in the Old Testament by questioning the nature of the text itself, though not rejecting belief in a good God. Wrestling with the Violence of God: Soundings in the Old Testament is a response to these challenging issues. The chapters in this volume present empathetic, holistic, and methodologically responsible readings of the Old Testament as Christian Scripture. Contributors from different nationalities, religious traditions, and educational institutions come together to address representative biblical material that depicts violence. Chapters address explicit portrayals of divine violence, human responses to violence of God and violence in the world, alternative understandings of supposedly violent texts, and a hopeful future in which violence is no more. Rather than attempt to offer a conclusive answer to the issue, this volume constructively contributes to the ongoing discussion.
Download or read book A Cry Instead of Justice written by Dereck Daschke and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2010-07-01 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Within a book widely touted as the path to peace, violence has incongruously been central to the Bible and how it is used. This collection book examines the manifestations of violence in Scripture, and the ways that Scripture itself - whether violent in content or not - can be used to justify violence and aggression in specific social circumstances today. The book is divided into two parts. The first half explores some incidents of Biblical violence that, rather than appearing at the forefront of the narrative, reflect that ancient Jewish culture (including the early Christian movement recorded in the New Testament) treats violence as an undeniable fact of the social world in which biblical figures live. In these essays, psychological theory and interpretation focus on the effect of this culture of violence in the behavior, expectations, and failures of Biblical figures, in order to re-evaluate the messages of these texts in light of their accepted, but largely unacknowledged,aggression. The second half uses psychological models to understand how Biblical doctrine and ideals shape the world in which we live, and introduce patterns of aggression and acceptance of violence into family, cultural, and political situations. Altogether, this collection of essays seeks to shed light on how the Bible relates to violence - and how many people relate to violence, consciously or not, through the stories and dynamics.
Download or read book Genocide the Bible and Biblical Scholarship written by Shawn Kelley and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2016-11-21 with total page 77 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A range of scholars have concluded that genocide itself is disturbingly rational and is grounded in more than atavistic, ancient prejudice. This significant conclusion challenges biblical scholars to re-examine the historical, hermeneutical and theological problems posed by biblical mass violence.
Download or read book The Joshua Delusion written by Douglas S. Earl and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many Christians wrestle with biblical passages in which God commands the slaughter of the Canaanites-men, women, and children. The issue of the morality of the biblical God is one of the major challenges for faith today. How can such texts be Holy Scripture? In this bold and innovative book Douglas Earl grasps the bull by the horns and guides readers to new and unexpected ways of looking at the book of Joshua. Drawing on insights from the early church and from modern scholarship, Earl argues that we have mistakenly read Joshua as a straightforward historical account and have ended up with a genocidal God. In contrast, Earl offers a theological interpretation in which the mass killing of Canaanites is a deliberate use of myth to make important theological points that are still valid today. Christopher J. H. Wright then offers a thoughtful response to Earl's provocative views. The book closes with Earl's reply to Wright and readers are encouraged to continue the debate.
Download or read book La Violencia and the Hebrew Bible written by Susanne Scholz and published by SBL Press. This book was released on 2016-05-11 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exegetically noteworthy and culturally-theologically relevant Violence in its wide range of horrifying expressions is real in people’s lives, and biblical interpreters must take violence in the world seriously to arrive at relevant ideas about the place of the Bible in the world. Each essay addresses people’s experiences of violence in the study of the Bible through the context of la violencia, the Spanish noun referring to the brutal, repressive, and murderous policies of state-sponsored violence practiced in many South and Central American and Caribbean countries during the twentieth century that external powers such as the USA often endorsed and fostered. The volume represents an important contribution to biblical studies and to the field of Latina/o studies. The contributors are Cheryl B. Anderson, Pablo Andiñach, Nancy Bedford, Lee Cuéllar, Steed V. Davidson, Serge Frolov, Renata Furst, Julia M. O’Brien, Todd Penner, José Enrique Ramírez, Ivoni Richter Reimer, and Susanne Scholz. Features: Twelve essays by scholars living and working on the American continent Articles reveal the complex historical, political, and cultural conditions on the American continent that have contributed to our understanding of violence in the Bible Focus on themes of racial, social, and cultural violence
Download or read book Holy War in the Bible written by Heath A. Thomas and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2013-04-06 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The challenge of a seemingly genocidal God who commands ruthless warfare has bewildered Bible readers for generations. The theme of divine war is not limited to the Old Testament historical books, however. It is also prevalent in the prophets and wisdom literature as well. Still it doesn t stop. The New Testament book of Revelation, too, is full of such imagery. Our questions multiply. Why does God apparently tell Joshua to wipe out whole cities, tribes or nations? Is this yet another example of dogmatic religious conviction breeding violence? Did these texts help inspire or justify the Crusades? What impact do they have on Christian morality and just war theories today? How does divine warfare fit with Christ s call to "turn the other cheek"? Why does Paul employ warfare imagery in his letters? Do these texts warrant questioning the overall trustworthiness of the Bible? These controversial yet theologically vital issues call for thorough interpretation, especially given a long history of misinterpretation and misappropriaton of these texts. This book does more, however. A range of expert contributors engage in a multidisciplinary approach that considers the issue from a variety of perspectives: biblical, ethical, philosophical and theological. While the writers recognize that such a difficult and delicate topic cannot be resolved in a simplistic manner, the different threads of this book weave together a satisfying tapestry. Ultimately we find in the overarching biblical narrative a picture of divine redemption that shows the place of divine war in the salvific movement of God.
Download or read book Making Sense of Old Testament Genocide written by Christian Hofreiter and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The divine commands to annihilate the seven nations living in Canaan (to 'devote them to destruction', herem in Biblical Hebrew) are perhaps the most morally troubling texts of the Hebrew and Christian bibles. 'Making Sense of Old Testament Genocide: Christian Interpretations of' Herem 'Passages' addreses the challenges these texts pose. It presents the various ways in which interpreters from the first century to the twenty-first have attempted to make sense of them. The most troubling approach was no doubt to read them as divine sanction and inspiration for violence and war: the analysis of the use of 'herem' texts in the crusades, the inquisition, and various colonial conquests illustrates this violent way of reading the texts, which has such alarming contemporary relevance. Three additional approaches can also be traced to antiquity, viz. pre-critical, non-literal, and divine-command-theory readings. Finally, critics of Christianity from antiquity via the Enlightenment to today have referenced herem texts: their critical voices are included as well.
Download or read book The Aesthetics of Violence in the Prophets written by Julia Myers O'Brien and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2010-04-08 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the 2006 annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, the Prophetic Texts in their Ancient Contexts section devoted a session to the theme "The Aesthetics of Violence." Participants were invited to explore multiple dimensions of prophetic texts and their violent rhetoric. The results were rich-- engaging discussion of violent images in ancient Near Eastern art and in modern film, as well as advancing our understanding of the poetic skill required for invoking terror through words. This volume collects those essays as well as others especially commissioned for its creation. As a collection, they address questions that are at once ancient and distressingly-modern: What do violent images do to us? Do they encourage violent behavior and/or provide an alternative to actual violence? How do depictions of violence define boundaries between and within communities? What readers can and should readers make of the disturbing rhetoric of violent prophets? Contributors include Corrine Carvahlo, Cynthia Chapman, Chris Franke, Bob Haak, Mary Mills, Julia O'Brien, Kathleen O'Connor, Carolyn Sharp, Yvonne Sherwood, and Daniel Smith-Christopher.
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 Ritual Violence in the Hebrew Bible written by Saul M. Olyan and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-12-01 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although the relationship of the Hebrew Bible and violence has been of interest to scholars in recent years, ritual violence in its various manifestations has been underexplored, as have been the theoretical dimensions of ritual violence. This volume is intended to bring into relief the full range of violent rites represented in the Hebrew Bible, many rarely, if ever, considered before. The book seeks to explore what acts of ritual violence might have accomplished socio-politically in their particular settings and the ways in which engagement with theory from a variety of disciplines can contribute to our understanding of ritual violence as a phenomenon. It consists of an introduction and eight essays. Topics include cognitive perspectives on iconoclasm, the instrumental dimensions of ritual violence against corpses, the ritual of killing cities ("urbicide"), royal rites of military loyalty, the ends accomplished by the violence against Rechab and Baanah in 2 Samuel 4, material dimensions of the herem and Rwanda genocide compared, the exchange of women among men and its violent dimensions, and Josiah's ritual assault on Bethel. Authors include Debra Scoggins Ballentine, T. M. Lemos, Mark Leuchter, Nathaniel B. Levtow, Susan Niditch, Saul M. Olyan, Rüdiger Schmitt, and Jacob L. Wright.
Download or read book Must There be Scapegoats written by Raymund Schwager and published by Gracewing Publishing. This book was released on 2000 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Schwager reverses three millennia of conventional understanding of the Bible as he argues that the God of the Old Testament is not a God of violence; that Jesus sacrifice is not an act of appeasement of the Father; and that the suffering and death of an infinite victim is not compensation for an infinite offence against God."-- Back cover.
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.
