When I read an edited collection of essays, I’ll usually post a sentence or two of thoughts per chapter/essay. This review – a potted review, if you will – represents that approach, so may or may not ‘do’ what you, dear reader, want a review to do. Some readers thinking about the book as a possible time or money investment may get a sense of it – contributors looking for sustained engagement with their chapters will not find it here, I don’t think.
For ease, I reproduce below the Table of Contents from the publisher’s website.
INTRODUCTION: BIBLICAL VIOLENCE IN THE CROSSHAIRS Michael Spalione
Part 1
VIOLENCE IN THE CANAANITE CONQUEST FINDING BRIGHT SPOTS IN OLD TESTAMENT WARFARE TEXTS Paul Copan
ERASING THE TROUBLING TEENS? WHAT HAPPENS TO THE CONQUEST OF CANAAN WHEN THE NON-DEUTERONOMISTIC BIBLICAL WRITERS TELL THE STORY? Helen Paynter
‘DISPOSSESSING’ THE CANAANITES IN DEUTERONOMY William Ford
Part 2
VIOLENCE IN THE REST OF THE HEBREW BIBLE ‘AS LONG AS (S)HE LIVES’: AN APPLICATION OF WILLIAM WEBB’S REDEMPTIVE-MOVEMENT HERMENEUTIC TO DEUTERONOMY 22.28-29 Isaac J. McNish
PRECARITY AND POWER, SUBJECTIVITY AND SISTERHOOD: COMPARING A QUADRILATERAL OF RIVAL WIVES TO SEEK REDEMPTION FOR PENINNAH Margaret Blakey
JUDGES 19: DOES THE BIBLE VICTIM BLAME THE WOMEN WITH NO NAME? Rebekah Legg
DEALING WITH THE DEAD IN EZEKIEL 39.11-20: A CARNIVALESQUE READING Peter Norris
Part 3
NEW TESTAMENT VIOLENCE LIONS IN LAMBS’ CLOTHING? A RESPONSE TO MIDDLETON’S THE VIOLENCE OF THE LAMB: MARTYRS AS AGENTS OF DIVINE JUDGEMENT IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION Helen Miller
ASKING FOR IT? LESSONS FROM MARY MAGDALENE IN A CULTURE OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE Siobhán Jolley
Part 4
ETHICS OF BIBLICAL VIOLENCE ONCE UPON A TIME IN PERSIA: THE ETHICS OF VIOLENCE IN THE BOOK OF ESTHER AND QUENTIN TARANTINO’S ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD Brandon Hurlbert
GORIFYING THE GOSPELS: THE TREATMENT OF CRUCIFIXION VIOLENCE IN FILM Will Moore
TIME FOR HER TO GET MARRIED: FORCED MARRIAGE AS A TROPE IN JEROME BERRYMAN’S GODLY PLAY Cath H. Kennedy
THE LAMB ON YOUR PLATE: FINDING THE CRUCIIED GOD IN THE VIOLENCE OF THE SLAUGHTERHOUSE Charlotte Thomas
Spalione’s introduction to the volume is interesting. He both subverts the general respect Christian have for the Bible, and takes it seriously. He helpfully suggests that “the study of biblical violence is a defensive as well as a subversive work” (p. 9), after offering a helpful overview of the volume’s contents. A lot of the volume unpacks Paul Copan’s statement that: “The biblical story tells of a God who uneasily steps into an ever-increasing violent world” (16). Paul Copan’s chapter on ‘bright spots’ is genuinely excellent. Carefully done, widely researched and thoroughly biblical, Copan’s piece shows how the Bible is better than we might imagine, and very honest.
Helen Paynter’s chapter ‘Erasing the Troubling Teens?’ Carefully engages the way that some retellings of the Exodus narrative appear to downplay the conquest aspect. Some really interesting questions that do demand further exploration! ord’s ‘’Dispossessing’ the Canaanites in Deuteronomy’ is a good example of asking questions of a specific text, including fascinating lexical study. “The rhetoric in the conquest commands forms part of Deuteronomy’s overall sermon of rhetorical focus on Israel’s covenantal loyalty to YHWH within the land, with the Canaanites being a key threat to that loyalty as idolaters within the land” (71). McNish’s chapter is a careful but potentially provocative reading of the text in question. He provides one good answer to the challenge of reading bits of text with a view to the wider text.
Blakey’s ‘precarity and power, subjectivity and sisterhood’ is a fascinating and well structured examination of the ‘shared victimhood’ (p. 95) of the four wives of Abram. Whilst some assertions felt free-floating, overall this is a useful contribution. I’ll certainly bear it in mind when working on this part of Genesis! Legg’s essay uses the anonymous female victim in Judges 19 to shine a painful light on the church. Her conclusion (p. 122) is one I believe is deeply important. Norris’s chapter is fascinating and fresh: “a ‘carnivalesque’ reading of the text offers to make sense of what seems nonsensical on the surface” (p. 134)
Miller opens the NT section of the volume with a careful response to a book by Paul Middleton. “The nature of God’s justice is what Revelation’s violent imagery explicates” (p. 151). A robust and impressive piece. Jolley presents some interesting ‘Lessons from Mary Magdalene in a culture of sexual violence’. Whilst I wasn’t convinced by every claim, she makes some poignant and important observations, e.g. “the mythologized Magdalene illustrates well how even the suggestion of sexuality can be used as a tool for alienation…” (p. 170).
The New Testament section of the volume is followed by what could be called ‘miscellaneous, interdisciplinary and practical reflections on the Bible and violence’. Hurlbert’s chapter bringing the book of Esther and the films of Tarantino into conversation with each other, and non-violence, is a good example of a very inter-disciplinary approach to biblical studies. I particularly appreciated his observation that the real world is more violent than Tarantino’s filmography – whatever some might think – and yet the Christian call to non-violence remains. Moore’s chapter on the crucifixion and Mel Gibson’s cinematic ‘gorification’ is interesting, if uncomfortable. I was left slightly confused as to the purpose of the piece – which is summarized in the rather unclear conclusion. Kennedy offers a careful and fascinating chapter on Chile marriage and ‘godly play’. Two totally non-controversial topics (not). Whilst I’m not sure I agree with her conclusion, the careful teasing apart of the structure of Godly Play ‘as a way of reading scripture’ [my reader’s note – it isn’t a very good way] is very helpful. Thomas’s opening question ‘Can we see the Lamb of God in the lamb on our plate?’ Sets the tone for her chapter. I found it unconvincing – and would suggest a more interesting approach would have been to consider the effects of inflicting violence on those who inflict it. She touches on that complex issue but in a fleeting way. I was frustrated to see a reliance on the work of David Tombs which I find very unconvincing*.
As an edited collection it was always going to be a mixed bag, but I was loath to give it three stars until some of the latter chapters which felt to me less about the Bible and violence than about other things, the Bible, and violence. Worth picking up for some of the essays, but not a book worth reading through for most pastors. Possibly interesting for those researching in the space – but the range of approaches and methodologies makes it a strange collection overall. At £70 for a (fairly basic) hardback, this isn’t a book I’d really recommend to anyone other than those doing serious scholarly work – pastors and those thinking more generally might find it worth picking up from a library, but it isn’t a book that I think is essential for everyone. Helen Paynter, one of the volumes coeditors, has written a much more interesting book on the bible and human violence.
3/5
*for anyone thinking I’m taking a cheap shot, see this engagement from Natalie Collins.
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