How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian: Struggling with Divine Violence from Genesis Through Revelation

Posted on 26 September 2018 by John Dominic Crossan

The acclaimed Bible scholar and author of The Historical Jesus and God Empire the greatest New Testament scholar of our generation John Shelby Spong grapples with Scripture s two conflicting visions of Jesus and God, one of a loving God, and one of a vengeful God, and explains how Christians can better understand these passages 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 How to Read the Bible and Still be a Christian explores this question and offers guidance for the faithful conflicted over which version of the Lord to worship John Dominic Crossan reconciles these contrasting views, revealing how different writers of the books of the Bible not only possessed different visions of God but also different purposes for writing Often these books are explicitly competing against another, opposing vision of God from the Bible itself.Crossan explains how to navigate this debate and offers what he believes is the best central thread to what the Bible is all about He challenges Christians to fully participate in this dialogue, thereby shaping their faith by reading deeply, reflectively, and in community with others who share their uncertainty Only then, he advises, will Christians be able to read and understand the Bible without losing their faith. New Read How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian: Struggling with Divine Violence from Genesis Through Revelation Author John Dominic Crossan For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr Justice v JudgementI am a Christian however, I have struggled most of my adult life with the dichotomy of God as described in the Bible On the one hand we have the loving creator God who gave us everything and whose son preached love and nonviolence On the other hand we have the avenging God of the flood, periodic wrath against his people, and ultimately the sword wielding Jesus of death in Revelation Put bluntly, the nonviolent Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount seemed annulled and dismissed Justice v JudgementI am a Christian however, I have struggled most of my adult life with the dichotomy of God as described in the Bible On the one hand we have the loving creator God who gave us everything and whose son preached love and nonviolence On the other hand we have the avenging God of the flood, periodic wrath against his people, and ultimately the sword wielding Jesus of death in Revelation Put bluntly, the nonviolent Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount seemed annulled and dismissed by the later Jesus in the book of Revelation p 9 John Dominic Crossan has done a masterful job showing how and why that dichotomy repeatedly exists in the Bible.Crossan s compelling argument is that God provides us radical love and distribution of resources but civilization continually subverts His will into our quest for , ,W e see that as in the Old Testament so in the Ne...Crossan performs his expected thorough and clear, readable analysis of the streams of thought that seem to portray two different portraits of God in the collection of documents over several centuries that now constitute what we call the Bible Crossan s book was originally published in 1989 and may be available only from used book vendors I bought it through .God s Violence vs God s JusticeThe author focuses on the problem of God s violence and conflicts in different portraits of God perc Crossan performs his expected thorough and clear, rea...Hands down the most provocative title of a book that I ll read this year, Crossan here is focused on the Bible s bi polar approach toward violence Two singular examples anchor his argument.First, there is the example of Jesus whose triumphal entry into Jerusalem four days before his crucifixion featured him riding a peace donkey, winking at the traditions of the conquering hero Yet in the Book of Revelation, Jesus appears again riding a white horse Are the writers here describing the same g Hands down the most provocative title of a book that I ll read this year, Crossan here is focused on the Bible s bi polar approach toward violence Two singular examples anchor his argument.First, there is the example of Jesus whose triumphal entry into Jerusalem four days be...Crossan is one of those scholars who is unspeakably brilliant and endlessly frustrating in equal measure This book ends up being quite typical in that respect His thesis is that Jesus is the measure of the Bible it is Jesus that shows us what is accurate and inaccurate everywhere else, and in that thesis he and I are in agreement And in fact the first two thirds of the book, largely concerned with the Old Testament, is full of profound insights But it is when we come to Jesus and Paul that Crossan is one of those scholars who is unspeakably brilliant and endlessly frustrating in equal measure This book ends up being quite typical in that respect His thesis is that Jesus is the measure of the Bible it is Jesus that shows us what is accurate and inaccurate everywhere else, and in that thesis he and I are in agreement And in fact the first two thirds of the book, largely concerned with the Old Testament, is full of profound insights But it is when we come to Jesus and Paul that he and I have something of a parting of the ways For him, the book of Revelation is a slander against God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, full of violence and bloodlust and thus must be rejected Crossan seems to grant fundamentalists too much powe...My zero stars rating isn t an indication that I thought this was a poorly written book In fact, just the opposite This was a highly engaging book and Crossan has an excellent writing style The contents are thought provoking, and for some perhaps life changing The problem is, I m not convinced by Crossan s arguments But the even greater problem is that I wish I was, which makes it very difficult to rate the book.The insurmountable issue for me is that Crossan bases ...This was a challenging book to complete, and I might have given up had it not been for my target It was however worth the effort and made me think carefully about the Bible and the historical Jesus within When read with other works from Crossan and Sheehan it adds signi...I really like the thesis of the book, seeing within the text of Scripture the assertion of the good and beautiful and then the subversion the return to the negative aspects of civilization again and again all throughout scripture In the New Testament what is given with one hand is taken back with the other Jesus God is presented as non judgmental, merciful, unconditionally loving, healing, forgiving and inclusive The kingdom will come nonviolently, like a seed, through enemy love, servin I really like the thesis of the book, seeing within the text of Scripture the assertion of the good and beautiful and then the subversion the return to the negative aspects of civilization again and again ...I read little bits of this book each morning while I had coffee I couldn t readthan a few pages at a time because I had to really think about what was written I found the book engrossing and educational and exactly what I had hoped to learn about, but at the same time, some of it was academic or theological in language so that I often had to reread a page several times No...This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers To view it, click here This book is about reconciling the nonviolent and violent God we seem to see in the Bible The Bible contains nonviolent teaching and actions by Jesus when he was here on earth the first time, but His return in Revelation has a decidedly violent description of what happens to His enemies The author has some interesting ideas and makes some good points, but I disagree with his founding principle The way the author reconciles those two things is stated in the second chapter, We sometimes say, in This book is about reconciling the nonviolent and vi...Crossan s book is an exemplary example of the scholarship for which he is so well known The first and last parts of the book provide clear explanations of his thesis of the significance of the historical Jesus to an understanding of the Bible Much of the main body of the work imparts the extensive research which underlies his discussion of distributive justice as distinct from retributive justice, the radical nature of nonviolent resistance versus the normalcy of violent oppression, and assert Crossan s book is an exemplary example of...

How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian: Struggling with Divine Violence from Genesis Through Revelation

26 September 2018

John Dominic Crossan