Jesus and the Subversion of Violence

Jesus and the Subversion of Violence

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  • Author: Thomas Yoder Neufeld
  • Publisher: SPCK
  • ISBN: 0281067015
  • Category : Religion
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 144

Asking about violence rather than peace is to come at the New Testament with a specific set of concerns growing out of a public discourse that has raised the issues of violence to new levels of urgency. While violence may not be as central a concern to the writers of the New Testament as is peace, it opens up avenues of analysis and reflection that shed important light on the New Testament. For many readers these may be unaccustomed and even troubling.


Jesus and the Violence of Scripture

Jesus and the Violence of Scripture

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  • Author: John Dominic Crossan
  • Publisher: SPCK
  • ISBN: 0281074216
  • Category : Religion
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 286

This brave and provocative book grapples with Scripture’s two conflicting visions of Jesus and God – one loving and gracious, and the other punitive and vengeful – and explains how readers can better understand these images in a way that enriches their faith. Many portions of the New Testament introduce a compassionate Jesus who turns the other cheek, loves his enemies, and shows grace to all. But the Jesus we find in Revelation and some portions of the Gospels leads an army of angels bent on earthly destruction. Which is the true revelation of the Messiah—and how can both be in the same Bible? Jesus and the Violence of Scriptureexplores this question and offers guidance for all who are confused about which version of the Lord to worship. In doing so the author demonstrates that writers of different books of the Bible not only possessed different visions of God but also different purposes for writing, and that for Christians the only God worthy of our worship is the one revealed through the words and action of the historical Jesus.


The Gospel of Peace in a Violent World

The Gospel of Peace in a Violent World

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  • Author: Shawn Graves
  • Publisher: InterVarsity Press
  • ISBN: 1514001292
  • Category : Religion
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 263

"Blessed are the peacemakers." The gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news of peace: peace between God and humanity, peace among humans. And yet it can be difficult to see that peace in our broken, violent world. In this volume, Shawn Graves and Marlena Graves have gathered contributions from theologians, pastors, and practitioners on the importance and implementation of Christian nonviolence in today's world. The vision they cast not only responds to the realities of war and conflict but also offers a broader, deeper understanding of peace that addresses topics such as race, gender, disability, immigration, the environment, food scarcity, and more—a holistic shalom that is evidence of God's presence. May it be so.


Killing Enmity

Killing Enmity

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  • Author: Thomas R. Yoder Neufeld
  • Publisher: Baker Academic
  • ISBN: 1441232087
  • Category : Religion
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 192

Is the New Testament inherently violent? In this book a well-regarded New Testament scholar offers a balanced critical assessment of charges and claims that the Christian scriptures encode, instigate, or justify violence. Thomas Yoder Neufeld provides a useful introduction to the language of violence in current theological discourse and surveys a wide range of key ethical New Testament texts through the lens of violence/nonviolence. He makes the case that, contrary to much scholarly opinion, the New Testament is not in itself inherently violent or supportive of violence; instead, it rejects and overcomes violence. [Published in the UK by SPCK as Jesus and the Subversion of Violence: Wrestling with the New Testament Evidence.]


Divine Violence and the Christus Victor Atonement Model

Divine Violence and the Christus Victor Atonement Model

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  • Author: Martyn J. Smith
  • Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
  • ISBN: 1498239471
  • Category : Religion
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 262

In this book Martyn Smith addresses the issue of God's violence and refuses to shy away from difficult and controversial conclusions. Through his wide-ranging and measured study he reflects upon God and violence in both biblical and theological contexts, assessing the implications of divine violence for understanding and engaging with God's nature and character. Jesus too, through his dramatic actions in the temple, is presented as one capable of exhibiting a surprising degree of violent behavior in the furtherance of God's purposes. Through a reappropriation of the ancient Christus Victor model of atonement, with its dramatic representation of God's war with the Satan, Smith proposes that Christian understanding of both God and salvation has to return to its long-neglected past in order to move forward, both biblically and dynamically, into the future.


The Vehement Jesus

The Vehement Jesus

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  • Author: David J. Neville
  • Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
  • ISBN: 1532642725
  • Category : Religion
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 310

The Vehement Jesus composes a fresh examination and interpretation of several perplexing passages in the Gospels that, at face value, challenge the conviction that the mission and message of Jesus were peaceful. Using narrative analysis and various forms of intratextual critique in the service of a hermeneutic of shalom, the author makes the case that Gospel portrayals of the vehement Jesus are compatible with, perhaps even indispensable to, the composite canonical portrait of Jesus as the Messiah of Peace. As a result, this exploration in New Testament theology and ethics makes an invaluable contribution to the crucial conversation about the role of Jesus' life and teaching in Christian reflection on the morality of violence today.


Security after Christendom

Security after Christendom

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  • Author: John Heathershaw
  • Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
  • ISBN: 1532615345
  • Category : Religion
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 318

We live in the wealthiest and most heavily defended world in history, so why do we feel so insecure? In a secular world, what does Christian theology have to say about this problem? Security after Christendom combines practical examples, social scientific research, and an ecumenical approach to political theology to answer these questions. It argues that Christendom was a plural phenomenon of imagined security communities of East and West whose unravelling continues to have implications for global politics today, as dramatically illustrated by Russia's war in Ukraine. While notions of a new Christendom are idolatrous and delusional, secular imaginaries of national security or the liberal international order are both destructive and unstable. True security--radical inclusion, nonviolent protection, and abundant provision--is an eschatological phenomenon, inaugurated by Christ. Security after Christendom is neither found in faithful government nor an exclusive church-as-polis approach but in relations of tension where the fallen powers are continuously confronted by prophetic practices. A post-Christendom community expresses its love for the world by seeking its security, providentially limiting the disorders of the secular age, and offering glimmers of a new earth.


Boys will be Boys, and Other Myths

Boys will be Boys, and Other Myths

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  • Author: Will Moore
  • Publisher: SCM Press
  • ISBN: 0334063027
  • Category : Religion
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 147

Throughout history, we have exalted and theologised about men like Adam or David to the point where we have become oblivious to the fact that they are far from perfect role models for Christian manhood. Failing to read scripture properly, we have used it to shape a distorted understanding of masculinity. Stretching from issues of violence, emotional and sexual abuse, the desire for power, homophobia, and the suppression of emotions, Will Moore draws from scholarship, personal stories, and popular culture to offer an honest and accessible insight into the toxic myths which frame how w e read scripture. Only when we expose these myths, he argues, can we start to see the authentic men staring straight back at us from the pages of our bibles, and be able to reshape the way in which we produce Christian men today, tackling the violence that is being done by men to themselves and others.


God Without Violence, Second Edition

God Without Violence, Second Edition

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  • Author: J. Denny Weaver
  • Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
  • ISBN: 153269282X
  • Category : Religion
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 227

Playing off a child's question concerning whether parents would put their son to death on a cross, this book plunges headlong into the ongoing debate about the character of God. The church confesses that God is revealed in Jesus. This book explores the implications of that radical claim. Jesus' life reveals his rejection of violence and calls for an understanding of God in nonviolent terms. Weaver thus invites us to embrace a nonviolent atonement image, in contrast to our inherited atonement images. Deriving theology from the narrative of Jesus also leads Weaver into discussions about the very nature of theology, the character of the Bible, the divine violence in the Old Testament (as well as the purported divine violence in the book of Revelation), and a rethinking of historic Christology. Each of these discussions has implications for life today--for economics, forgiveness and restorative justice, violence, gender discrimination, racism, and more. This second, expanded edition of God Without Violence is an introduction to foundational issues of theology and ethics, suitable for church discussion groups and introductory college classes.


Peaceful at Heart

Peaceful at Heart

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  • Author: Don Neufeld
  • Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
  • ISBN: 1532644779
  • Category : Religion
  • Languages : en
  • Pages : 260

While there are plenty of books by men, for men, on the topic of “Christian masculinity,” these books generally fail to address men’s propensities for violence and the traditional inequity between men and women, often endorsing inequity and sanctioning aggressive behavior as an appropriate “manly” response to conflict. Peaceful at Heart cuts through this conversation by offering a uniquely Anabaptist Christian perspective on masculinity. The vision of masculinity presented in this book is more peaceful, just, caring, life-giving for men, and more sensitive to women and children than both traditional images of masculinity and the hypermasculine images promoted by contemporary popular culture and wider evangelical Christianity. Peaceful at Heart addresses men and masculinity using Anabaptist theological themes of discipleship, community, and peace. As a collaborative project by men, for men, this book demonstrates through personal narratives, theological reflection, and practical guidance the importance of collective discernment, accountability, and mutual encouragement regarding how to live as a peaceful man in a violent world.