Does the Bible Justify Violence?

Does the Bible Justify Violence?
Author: John Joseph Collins
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 68
Release: 2004
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781451411287

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In this clarifying essay, renowned biblical scholar John Collins delves into the lethal side of the biblical text, asking whether the Bible endorses or even foments violence and how its many violent texts may best be understood in today's volatile religious and political context. This work is based on his Presidential Address to the Society of Biblical Literature.

Christianity and Violence

Christianity and Violence
Author: Lloyd Steffen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 147
Release: 2021-05-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1108848826

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How Christian people have framed the meaning of violence within their faith tradition has been a complex process subject to all manner of historical, cultural, political, ethnic and theological contingencies. As a tradition encompassing widely divergent beliefs and perspectives, Christianity has, over two millennia, adapted to changing cultural and historical circumstances. To grasp the complexity of this tradition and its involvement with violence requires attention to specific elements explored in this Element: the scriptural and institutional sources for violence; the faith commitments and practices that join communities and sanction both resistance to and authorization for violence; and select historical developments that altered the power wielded by Christianity in society, culture and politics. Relevant issues in social psychology and the moral action guides addressing violence affirmed in Christian communities provide a deeper explanation for the motivations that have led to the diverse interpretations of violence avowed in the Christian tradition.

The Violence of Scripture

The Violence of Scripture
Author: Eric A. Seibert
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2012
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1451424329

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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

The Crucifixion of the Warrior God

The Crucifixion of the Warrior God
Author: Gregory A. Boyd
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 1487
Release: 2017-04-17
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1506420761

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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.

The Violence of the Biblical God

The Violence of the Biblical God
Author: L. Daniel Hawk
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 351
Release: 2019-01-08
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1467452602

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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.

Violence in the New Testament

Violence in the New Testament
Author: Shelly Matthews
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 169
Release: 2005-03-09
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567397467

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While much work has been done on the role of Jews in the crucifixion of Jesus in post-Holocaust biblical scholarship, the question of violence in subsequent community formation remains largely unexamined. New Testament passages suggesting that early Christ-believers were violently persecuted--the "stone throwing" passages from John, the "persecuted from town to town" passages in Matthew, the stoning of Stephen in Acts, Paul's hardship catalogue in II Corinthians, etc.-- are frequently read positivistically as windows onto first century persecution; at the other extreme, they are sometimes dismissed as completely a-historical. In either case, scholars up until now have provided little in the way of methodological reflection on how they have reached such conclusions. A further problematic issue in previous readings of passages suggesting such violence is that the perpetrators of violence are frequently cast as "Jews" while the violated are cast as "Christians," in spite of the growing consensus that it is impossible to tease out these two distinct and separate religious identities, Jew and Christian, from first century texts. This volume takes up crucial methodological questions about how to read passages suggesting violence among Jews in texts that eventually became part of the New Testament canon. It situates this intra-religious violence within the violence of the Roman Imperial order. It provides new readings of these texts that move beyond the "Jew as violator"/"Christian as violated" binary.

A Cry Instead of Justice

A Cry Instead of Justice
Author: Dereck Daschke
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 215
Release: 2010-07-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567514617

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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.

God Behaving Badly

God Behaving Badly
Author: David T. Lamb
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages: 157
Release: 2022-01-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1514003503

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God has a bad reputation. Many think of God as wrathful and angry, smiting people for no apparent reason. But the story is more complicated than that. Without minimizing the sometimes harsh realities of the biblical record, David Lamb unpacks the complexity of the Old Testament and assembles an overall picture that gives coherence to our understanding of God in both Old and New Testaments.

Is God a Moral Monster?

Is God a Moral Monster?
Author: Paul Copan
Publisher: Baker Books
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2011-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1441214542

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A recent string of popular-level books written by the New Atheists have leveled the accusation that the God of the Old Testament is nothing but a bully, a murderer, and a cosmic child abuser. This viewpoint is even making inroads into the church. How are Christians to respond to such accusations? And how are we to reconcile the seemingly disconnected natures of God portrayed in the two testaments? In this timely and readable book, apologist Paul Copan takes on some of the most vexing accusations of our time, including: God is arrogant and jealous God punishes people too harshly God is guilty of ethnic cleansing God oppresses women God endorses slavery Christianity causes violence and more Copan not only answers God's critics, he also shows how to read both the Old and New Testaments faithfully, seeing an unchanging, righteous, and loving God in both.

Disarming Scripture

Disarming Scripture
Author: Derek Flood
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2014-10-04
Genre: Bible
ISBN: 9780692307267

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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.