The Violence of Scripture: Overcoming the Old Testament's Troubling Legacy
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. For those who read the Bible as Scripture, these depictions of "virtuous" violence pose tremendous moral and theological challenges. What can be done to stop people from using the Old Testament in such destructive ways, and how might these violent texts be read more faithfully? Eric Seibert faces these challenges head-on by confronting the problem of "virtuous" violence and urging 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.

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The Violence of Scripture: Overcoming the Old Testament's Troubling Legacy
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. For those who read the Bible as Scripture, these depictions of "virtuous" violence pose tremendous moral and theological challenges. What can be done to stop people from using the Old Testament in such destructive ways, and how might these violent texts be read more faithfully? Eric Seibert faces these challenges head-on by confronting the problem of "virtuous" violence and urging 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.

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The Violence of Scripture: Overcoming the Old Testament's Troubling Legacy

The Violence of Scripture: Overcoming the Old Testament's Troubling Legacy

by Eric A. Seibert (Editor)
The Violence of Scripture: Overcoming the Old Testament's Troubling Legacy

The Violence of Scripture: Overcoming the Old Testament's Troubling Legacy

by Eric A. Seibert (Editor)

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Overview

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. For those who read the Bible as Scripture, these depictions of "virtuous" violence pose tremendous moral and theological challenges. What can be done to stop people from using the Old Testament in such destructive ways, and how might these violent texts be read more faithfully? Eric Seibert faces these challenges head-on by confronting the problem of "virtuous" violence and urging 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.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780800698256
Publisher: 1517 Media
Publication date: 08/01/2012
Pages: 232
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Eric A. Seibert is professor of Old Testament and former Director of the Peace and Conflict Studies Initiative at Messiah College. He is the author of Subversive Scribes and the Solomonic Narrative (2006) and Disturbing Divine Behavior (Fortress Press, 2009).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ix

Chapter 1 Introduction: The Bible Should Never Be Used to Harm Others 1

Part 1 Exploring the Old Testament's Troubling Legacy

Chapter 2 The Old Testament's Troubling Legacy 15

Chapter 3 The Pervasive Presence of "Virtuous" Violence in the Old Testament 27

Chapter 4 The Danger of Reading the Bible 45

Part 2 Proposing a Way of Reading the Old Testament Nonviolently

Chapter 5 Developing Good Reading Habits: Becoming Ethically Responsible Readers 61

Chapter 6 Reading the Old Testament Nonviolently 73

Part 3 Applying Nonviolent Reading Strategies to Violent Texts

Chapter 7 Confronting Canaanite Genocide and Its Toxic Afterlife 95

Chapter 8 Keeping the Old Testament from Being Used to Justify War 115

Chapter 9 Preventing Violence against Women 129

Chapter 10 The Necessity and Urgency of Reading the Old Testament Nonviolently: Some Conclusions 147

Appendix: A Brief Word about Biblical Authority 159

Notes 163

Bibliography 193

Index of Biblical References 211

Index of Modern Authors 217

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