A few weeks ago I read John Dominic Crossan’s new book How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian: Struggling with Divine Violence from Genesis Through Revelation, and I would have posted something sooner if I weren’t in the middle of end-of-semester crunch time. Anyway, enough excuses. The book is thoughtful, energetic, and–that overused […]
Violence of God
my thoughts about thinking about violence in the Bible: a counterpoint
Several days ago over at OnFaith, John Dickson posted “4 Responses to the Problem of Violence in the Bible.” I respect Dickson and his work a lot. I also think his thoughts in this piece are constructive and will be helpful to many readers. Dickson’s post responds specifically to Richard Dawkins’s charge that the Canaanite extermination in the book of […]
Canaanite genocide: it’s OK because it wasn’t THAT bad (was it?)
Here is my second post on my reaction to the RNS interview with Paul Copan and Matthew Flannagan about their recent book Did God Really Command Genocide?: Coming to Terms with the Justice of God. (The first post is here. I may add a third and final post later this week.) Based on some comments to my first post, […]
the Canaanites weren’t the “worst sinners ever”: engaging Copan and Flannagan on Canaanite extermination
Earlier this month, Jonathan Merritt over at RNS interviewed Paul Copan and Matthew Flannagan about their recent book Did God Really Command Genocide?: Coming to Terms with the Justice of God. Copan is Professor and Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University, and Flannagan is a philosopher with proficiency in contemporary analytic […]
biblical violence and reading the Bible like Jesus did
Today’s post is an interview with Derek Flood, author of Disarming Scripture: Cherry-Picking Liberals, Violence-Loving Conservatives, and Why We All Need to Learn to Read the Bible Like Jesus Did, which has just been released this week. The book deals with the problem of violence in Scripture, tackling a wide range of troubling passages—from commands […]
want to read an excerpt from The Bible Tells Me So? (of course you do)
The release of my upcoming book The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It is now less than a month away, and I know many of you–millions of you, perhaps billions, who can really tell after all?–are experiencing all sorts of emotional and physical symptoms while waiting to get […]
“Scripture is like a cracked jar”–the glory of an imperfect Bible (Michael Hardin part 4)
Today we come to the final post of a 4-part series by Michael Hardin, “How Jesus Read His Bible.” Hardin (see full bio at part 1) is the co-founder and Executive Director of Preaching Peace a non-profit based in Lancaster, PA whose motto is “Educating the Church in Jesus’ Vision of Peace.” Hardin has published over a dozen […]
What does God without retribution look like? Ask Jesus (Michael Hardin part 3)
Today we have part 3 of a 4-part series by Michael Hardin, “How Jesus Read His Bible.” Hardin (see full bio at part 1) is the co-founder and Executive Director of Preaching Peace a non-profit based in Lancaster, PA whose motto is “Educating the Church in Jesus’ Vision of Peace.” Hardin has published over a dozen articles on […]
Let There Be Violence? (evangelicalism and the dark side of the Bible)
Over at OnFaith, Brandon Withrow has published an article on the growing rift emerging among evangelicals on how to handle the biblical depictions of God as violent. I was interviewed for the piece, along with several others. Early in the article, Withrow observes: Many Christians today are critical of the violence they see in other […]
The Best Way of Getting out of the Whole Canaanite Genocide Thing, and It Comes Right from the Bible (But You May Not Like It)
In past posts (here, then followed up here, here, here, and here) I’ve talked quite a bit about the little problem we have in the Old Testament: God orders the armies of Joshua to kill every single Canaanite so the Israelites can live in their land. Deuteronomy 20 lays this out, and the deed is done […]
