ORIGINAL RESEARCH

 

The role of the Old Testament in a violent world

 

 

Esias E. Meyer

Department of Old Testament Studies, University of Pretoria, South Africa

Correspondence

 

 

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ABSTRACT

This article explores the responsibility of Bible critics with regard to the role that the Bible should play in our violent society. The crucial question that needs to beaddressed is whether the Bible, and especially the Old Testament, is part of the problem or part of the solution. The Old Testament is clearly a violent book. How do we deal with this? Does the Old Testament really have a positive contribution to make in a society riddled with violence? Some Bible critics tend to shy away from these questions, but there are exceptions. For some, violence is so endemic to the Bible that there is little to save. For others, the Bible has a very constructive role toplay in a society plagued by violence.

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Full text available only in PDF format.

 

 

References

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Snyman, G., 2010, 'Review of: Divine presence amid violence: Contextualizing the Book of Joshua by Walter Brueggemann', in Review of Biblical Literature 04/2010, viewed 03 December 2010, from http://www.bookreviews.org/pdf/7156_7777.pdf        [ Links ]

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Correspondence:
Esias Meyer
Private bag X20, Hatfield,
Pretoria 0028, South Africa
Email: sias.meyer@up.ac.za

Received: 04 Feb. 2011
Accepted: 03 June 2011
Published: 11 Nov. 2011

 

 

Note: This article was initially read as a paper at a conference held at the Centre for Public Theology (University of Pretoria) on 'Violence in the democratic South Africa: A challenge to theology and the churches' on 11 August 2010.