Divine Violence in the Book of Samuel

Divine Violence in the Book of Samuel

Author: Rachelle Gilmour

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2021-11-19

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0190938099

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Much of the drama, theological paradox, and interpretive interest in the Book of Samuel derives from instances of God's violence in the story. The beginnings of Israel's monarchy are interwoven with God's violent rejection of the houses of Eli and of Saul, deaths connected to the Ark of the Covenant, and the outworking of divine retribution after David's violent appropriation of Bathsheba as his wife. Whilst divine violence may act as a deterrent for violent transgression, it can also be used as a model or justification for human violence, whether in the early monarchic rule of Ancient Israel, or in crises of our contemporary age. In Divine Violence in the Book of Samuel, Rachelle Gilmour explores these narratives of divine violence from ethical, literary, and political perspectives, in dialogue with the thought of Immanuel Kant, Martha Nussbaum and Walter Benjamin. She addresses such questions as: Is the God of Samuel a capricious God with a troubling dark side? Is punishment for sin the only justifiable violence in these narratives? Why does God continue to punish those already declared forgiven? What is the role of God's emotions in acts of divine violence? In what political contexts might narratives of divine violence against God's own kings, and God's own people have arisen? The result is a fresh commentary on the dynamics of transgression, punishment, and their upheavals in the book of Samuel. Gilmour offers a sensitive portrayal of God's literary characterization, with a focus on divine emotion and its effects. By identifying possible political contexts in which the narratives arose, God's violence is further illumined through its relation to human violence, northern and southern monarchic ideology, and Judah's experience of the Babylonian exile.


The Crucifixion of the Warrior God

The Crucifixion of the Warrior God

Author: Gregory A. Boyd

Publisher: Fortress Press

Published: 2017-04-17

Total Pages: 1487

ISBN-13: 1506420761

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A dramatic tension confronts every Christian believer and interpreter of Scripture: on the one hand, we encounter images of God commanding and engaging in horrendous violence: one the other hand, we encounter the non-violent teachings and example of Jesus, whose loving, self-sacrificial death and resurrection is held up as the supreme revelation of God’s character in the New Testament. How do we reconcile the tension between these seemingly disparate depictions? Are they even capable of reconciliation? Throughout Christian history, many different answers have been proposed, ranging from the long-rejected explanation that these contrasting depictions are of two entirely different ‘gods’ to recent social and cultural theories of metaphor and narrative representation. The Crucifixion of the Warrior God takes up this dramatic tension and the range of proposed answers in an epic constructive investigation. Over two volumes, renowned theologian and biblical scholar Gregory A. Boyd argues that we must take seriously the full range of Scripture as inspired, including its violent depictions of God. At the same time, we must take just as seriously the absolute centrality of the crucified and risen Christ as the supreme revelation of God. Developing a theological interpretation of Scripture that he labels a “cruciform hermeneutic,” Boyd demonstrates how Scripture’s violent images of God are completely reframed and their violence subverted when they are interpreted through the lens of the cross and resurrection. Indeed, when read through this lens, Boyd argues that these violent depictions can be shown to bear witness to the same self-sacrificial character of God that was supremely revealed on the cross.


Defying the Darkness

Defying the Darkness

Author: J. Michael Clark

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2010-01-01

Total Pages: 127

ISBN-13: 1608992047

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Clark's work is original in that he has inserted himself precisely as a gay scholar in the midst of an ongoing conversation far larger than that of the gay world--including ecofeminism, Judaism, and Native American--and shows especially how queer theory and ecofeminism can illuminate each other. --Richard L. Smith, author of AIDS, Gays and the American Catholic Church (The Pilgrim Press)


Love, Violence, and the Cross

Love, Violence, and the Cross

Author: Gregory Anderson Love

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2010-08-01

Total Pages: 317

ISBN-13: 1608990427

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Does God use violence to redeem us? What is the relationship between divine love and violence in regard to the saving significance of the cross of Christ? In Love, Violence, and the Cross, Gregory Love dialogues with two responses to this question, while presenting a third alternative in which Jesus's death is simultaneously a crime and an element of God's saving actions. Through familiar stories in history, literature, and film, Love presents five constructive models that cumulatively affirm God's saving act in the person and work of Christ while letting go the myth of redemptive violence. They affirm redemption, but one with a different shape: Instead of exacting the absolute punishment, God redeems by "making good" God's promise to humanity to secure human life. Love argues that God is nonviolent, while retaining the core idea presented in the New Testament witnesses: that reconciliation occurs in the work of Christ, and that the cross plays a role in that divine work.


Life, Love, and Hope

Life, Love, and Hope

Author: Jan-Olav Henriksen

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Published: 2014-11-10

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 0802871496

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Taking both knowledge of evolution and belief in God as Creator into account, Henriksen's Life, Love, and Hope articulates a vision for understanding the relationship between God and human experience in contemporary terms. Henriksen maintains that evolutionary theory does not account for all that can and must be said about human life and experience. Conversely, he also argues that any belief in God as Creator can be informed and deepened by knowledge of evolution.--Publisher's website.


Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence

Author: Sarah Hilder

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-06-29

Total Pages: 341

ISBN-13: 1137524529

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This book presents a variety of socio-legal perspectives on issues of domestic violence and abuse. Focussing on contemporary research and practice developments in policing, law, statutory and voluntary sectors, the contributors to this volume cover a vast spectrum of initiatives and professional expertise concerned variably with protection, prevention and intervention priorities. The challenges of “joined up” thinking across these perspectives are apparent as the varied definitions, underpinning ideologies, terminologies, the profile of the victim/survivor’s voice and identified gaps in service provision appearing in this book illustrate. As a reflection on the current economic climate, some of the perspectives presented necessarily compete rather than complement each other, an issue the volume highlights and addresses. Achieving a broader understanding of these issues and insights into a range of activity in this context is vital for both the practitioner and academic alike, whatever their perspective./div