The Violence of the Biblical God: Canonical Narrative and Christian Faith
Overview
How we can make sense of violence in the Bible?
The teachings of the incarnate Jesus sometimes seem to be at odds with the edicts of the God of Israel. Joshua commands God’s people to wipe out everyone in the Promised Land, yet Jesus commands God’s people to love their enemies. How are we to interpret passages on violence when it is sanctioned at one point and condemned at another?
The Violence of the Biblical God by L. Daniel Hawk offers a new framework, solidly rooted in the authority of Scripture, for understanding the paradox of God’s participation in violence. Hawk suggests that the historical narrative of the Bible offers multiple canonical pictures for faithful Christian engagement with the violent systems of the world. Reading Scripture as the story of the Creator’s decision to restore creation by working within and along with humanity, Hawk shows how Christians with diverse perspectives can at once be faithful to the biblical text and partake in a common conversation on violence.
Key Features
- Examines accounts of violence throughout the Bible
- Considers how Christians should respond to violence in today’s world
- Explores the nature of God and his interaction with a fallen world
Contents
- The Problem of the Violent God
- Creation Ruined and Remade
- Yahweh’s New Approach
- The Grand Entrance
- A Covenant Made and Remade
- God and Kings
- The Land Promised and Taken
- God Moves to the Outside
- Interpreting Divine Violence
Top Highlights
“To simplify, the Old Testament presents God at work primarily at the center of society, while the New Testament presents God at work primarily at the margins. The question, following on this observation, has to do with whether one views the Old Testament as a narrative that must be rejected because it testifies to a failed divine approach or one that displays the messiness and accommodations that must be navigated by those who believe that God still works at the center of power as well as its periphery.” (Page 199)
“The proclamation makes clear that Yahweh has not rejected the idea of working with kings, despite the ultimate collapse of the project. Yet the human partner that the Lord enlists, a young peasant woman, reveals that the Lord will no longer work within that system, but rather opposed to it.” (Page 171)
“The trio of anecdotes make a single point: indigenous peoples who confess Yahweh may be incorporated into the covenant community, while Israelites who step outside the boundaries that define the community must be eliminated. Indigenous people may enter Israel, but transit in the opposite direction is forbidden.” (Page 164)
“Why specify a series of actions designed to keep the Israelites at a distance from the peoples if Israel is to annihilate those people when it enters the land?” (Page 156)
“All of these instances of divine working within warfare derive from Yahweh’s identification with a nation that Yahweh intends to be an agent of blessing to the nations of the world. The kingdom that God establishes through Jesus Christ, however, stands outside and reverses the operations of the systems that govern the world humans have made. In Christ, God no longer identifies with a nation or accommodates nationalist or monarchical objectives. Although Yahweh’s defense of Israel leaves open the question of whether defensive wars may be legitimate, there is no question that violence in collusion with nationalist aims is illegitimate.” (Pages 205–206)
Product Details
- Title: The Violence of the Biblical God: Canonical Narrative and Christian Faith
- Author: L. Daniel Hawk
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Publication Date: 2019
- Pages: 248
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Topic: Biblical Studies
Dr. L. Daniel Hawk (PhD, Emory University; MDiv, Asbury Theological Seminary) is professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at Ashland Theological Seminary and an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church. Much of his writing focuses on the literary analysis of biblical narratives, with attention to the ways that narrative texts construct corporate identities and grapple with the problem of human and divine violence. These concerns converge in several books on the book of Joshua, including Joshua (Berit Olam, Liturgical Press, 2000) and Joshua in 3-D (Cascade, 2010), as well as in his collaboration on Postcolonial Evangelical Conversations (InterVarsity, 2014). His scholarship finds traction through an active speaking schedule and participation in justice and reconciliation initiatives.