Divine Presence Amid Violence (Joshua)

What shall we do with all the violence and bloody war that is done in the Old Testament in the name of Yahweh? We often find the violent texts in the Old Testament to be both morally repulsive and theologically problematic. This is not simply because they are violent, but because they seem to endorse violence committed in the name of Yahweh.

Religious violence is a burning issue in our world and many Christians struggle to find the God of Jesus in texts which appear to endorse such behaviour. In this readable little book Walter Brueggemann proposes a way of receiving some of these troubling texts as containing genuine divine revelation. He takes Joshua chapter 11 as a case study and shows how we might hear a challenging word from God to his people today through its violent story.