Divine Violence

Enjoy this lecture by scholar Eric A. Seibert that does not dismiss violence that is attributed to God in the Bible, but rather offers compelling ways to think about it. Below is the handout he provided for his presentation.

“The Lord Will Take Delight in Bringing You to Ruin and Destruction” (Deut. 28:63, NRSV):

The Violent Old Testament God as a Problem for Open and Relational Theologians

Eric A. Seibert

eseibert@messiah.edu

ORTCON 22

July 6, 2022 - Grand Targhee Resort - Alta, WY

I.               The Presence of Divine Violence in the Bible

A.             How many verses?

B.             How many casualties?

II.             The Cornerstone of Open and Relational Theology

A.             God is love.

B.             Quotes

 

God's unchanging nature is love.... love is what God does....love comes logically first among divine attributes....God cannot not love....open and relational theology says God must love (Oord, Open and Relational Theology, 124).

 

To love is to act intentionally, in relational response to God and others, to promote overall well-being (Oord, Pluriform Love, 28).

III.          The Problem

A.             Is God's violent behavior in the Old Testament loving? Does it promote

overall well-being?

B.             Violence: physical, emotional, or psychological harm done to a person

by an individual, institution, or structure that results in serious injury,

oppression, or death (Seibert, Disarming the Church, 10).

IV.           Three Possible “Solutions"

A.             Reject the Old Testament (change your view of the Bible)

B.             View God as both good and evil (change your view of God)

C.             Defend Cod's violent behavior as loving behavior (change your   interpretation of violent verses)

V.             My Proposal: Deconstruct Violent Portrayals of God

A.             Emphasize the human origins of the Bible,

B.             Contextualize violent Old Testament portrayals of God.

C.             Acknowledge God did not say or do everything the Old Testament

claims.

1.              Archaeological evidence

2.              The nature of ancient historiography

D.             Distinguish “between the textual God and the actual God.”

E.              Use the God Jesus reveals to challenge violent portrayals of God in the

Old Testament.

 

Premise 1: God's moral character is most clearly and completely revealed through the person of Jesus.

 

Premise 2: Jesus reveals a God of love: one who heals rather than harms, is kind rather than cruel, forgives rather than retaliates, and behaves nonviolently rather than violently.

Three Objections

(1)            The temple cleansing.

(2)            Not coming to bring peace but a sword

(3)            Eschatological judgment

Premise 3: God's moral character is consistent throughout time.

Interpretive Implication: The God Jesus reveals should be the standard by which all literary Portrayals of God are evaluated. Portrayals that correspond to the God Jesus reveals should be regarded as reliable rejections of God's character, while those that do not should be regarded as culturally conditioned understandings that do not reflect God's true nature.

VI.           Where Do We Go from here?

A.             Stop defending God's violent behavior in the Old Testament.

B.             Start publicly deconstructing violent portrayals of God.

C.             Offer a more accurate view of God as gracious, loving, and nonviolent.

D.             Do something creative, constructive, and responsible with Old

Testament passages in which God behaves violently.

Portions of this presentation were adapted from my previous work, most fundamentally from Eric A. Seibert, Disturbing Divine Behavior: Troubling Old Testament Images of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2009).