Description
How do we make sense of the many stories in the Bible that portray God as at best ignoring violence and at worst explicitly calling for it? Is God violent? These questions have plagued readers of the Bible for centuries, moving beyond theory to practical and devastating applications—including the justification of human acts of violence. In this class, Dr. Peter Enns delves into examples of divine violence in the Biblical text while challenging simplistic interpretations that assert we need to uncritically accept depictions of God as violent. Join us for Divine Violence in the Old Testament.
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Topics We’ll Cover:
- Key texts in the Old and New Testament that condone violence.
- Why ancient writers’ understanding of God was tied to violence.
- How readers today can interpret the Bible respectfully and responsibly while still critiquing its violent depictions of God?
This Class Includes:
- Link to the class recording
- Study Guide
- Live Q&A on May 20th from 8 – 9 pm EST.
Your Instructor:
Dr. Peter Enns (Ph.D., Harvard University) is Abram S. Clemens professor of biblical studies at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. He has written numerous books, including The Bible Tells Me So, The Sin of Certainty, and Curveball.
