The violence of Scripture
Subtitle: overcoming the Old Testament's troubling legacy
By: Eric A. Seibert
Publisher: Fortress Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Minneapolis
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 230
ISBN-13: 9780800698256; 9781451424324
Subjects: Criticism, interpretation; Bible; Violence in the Bible; Hermeneutics
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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p.         ) and indexes.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: the Bible should never be used to harm others; title: The Old Testament's troubling legacy; title: The pervasive presence of "virtuous" violence in the Old Testament; title: The danger of reading the Bible; title: Developing good reading habits: becoming ethically responsible readers; title: Reading the Old Testament nonviolently; title: Confronting Canaanite genocide and its toxic afterlife; title: Keeping the Old Testament from being used to justify war; title: Preventing violence against women; title: The necessity and urgency of reading the Old Testament nonviolently: some conclusions.