Author: Timothy Philip Schwartz-Barcott
Publisher: Teneo Press
ISBN: 9781934844380
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 352
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Book Description
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.
Author: Timothy Philip Swartz-Barcott
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781934844366
Category : BIBLES
Languages : en
Pages : 328
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Book Description
Author: Eric A. Seibert
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 1451424329
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 234
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Book Description
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
Author: Susan Niditch
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195356918
Category : Bibles
Languages : en
Pages : 193
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Book Description
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.
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004434682
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 450
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Book Description
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.
Author: M. Daniel Carroll R.
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 1575068311
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 193
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Book Description
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.
Author: Shawn Kelley
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004326693
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 77
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Book Description
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.
Author: Dereck Daschke
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0567514617
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 215
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Book Description
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.
Author: Susanne Scholz
Publisher: SBL Press
ISBN: 0884141314
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 275
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Book Description
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
Author: Douglas S. Earl
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1608998924
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 191
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Book Description
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.