Abstract
Eric Seibert has for some time been writing and speaking on the issue of violence in the Bible, especially those texts which associate God with that violence. The present volume extends that work by offering guidance for those in ministry who are troubled by what they find in the Bible, though with a heavy weighting towards the Old Testament since that is his primary area of expertise. In some ways, it offers a popularisation of some of his earlier work, but this is an essential step if he is to make the fruit of that work accessible to a wider audience. Throughout, Seibert demonstrates that he is at home in both academy and church, integrating his exegetical work with the life of someone who takes the Bible seriously in ministry.
The book is divided into three parts, all written with clarity and commitment. The first takes up the issue of why the church should not ignore texts containing violence. Seibert knows that the two chapters here are insufficient to address this problem, but they do provide an important sketch of the issues. As Seibert demonstrates, many Christian traditions have found ways of avoiding these texts (e.g., their omission in the Revised Common Lectionary), but such avoidance ends up causing greater problems than whatever benefits might be claimed. Since we cannot ignore these texts, the second part offers a range of practical ways in which such texts might be used in worship and preaching, including our approach to teaching children (the only point at which he accepts that holding back introducing some of these passages might be appropriate). Finally, the third part provides examples of how such texts might be used, reflecting critically on how the elements in the first two parts might be integrated into church life.
As someone who has also wrestled with violence in the Bible, this is a book that I wanted to like. And many of the practical suggestions that Seibert makes for using these texts can and should be actioned. Moreover, his case for ensuring that churches introduce congregants to the whole Bible rather than a sanitised version of it seems to me unassailable. But, running through the whole book is the continued assertion that God never participates in actions of violence (e.g., p. 21). Any text which suggests God does act violently is simply a presentation of what an ancient audience believed. Yet we must then immediately face the problem that different texts in the Bible are given different authority. On what basis can Seibert make this claim? He believes that a God of love cannot use violence since one excludes the other. Yet this leaves us with a God who does not challenge Pharaoh in the exodus, a God who does not bring down the mighty from their thrones. It is true that on the cross, Jesus overcomes the worst of human violence, but God continues to engage with this world as it is, not yet as we might want it to be. We might helpfully distinguish force from violence, but this is not something Seibert considers. Further, the decision to focus on physical violence also means that structural violence is not addressed even though it is arguably a great trigger for physical violence. Despite these concerns, this is a book that should be read because it has much to contribute, but it needs to be used with care.