Send us a text Summary Part 1 of 2. In chapters 8 and 9, we think about the faith of 3 out of 4 of the most recent presidents of the United States: George W. Bush, Barak Obama, and Donald Trump. We talk about American Civil Religion, and how it fuses orthodox Christian doctrine with nationalism. And we talk about the function of bias, especially our own, and how it makes us hypersensitive to the errors of some, and less watchful of the errors of others. Notes Our thanks and appreciation to...
Send us a text Summary Join us for a conversation that takes a surprising but enjoyable turn into church history, as we discuss Chapter 6 "The Magic of the Market: the hermeneutics of small government" and Chapter 7 "The Late Great United States: biblical eschatology in the Cold War. No panda references, but we do find ourselves wondering if the heavenly city might be depicted as a Borg cube. Notes Our thanks and appreciation to our partners: A production of the Centre for the Study of B...
Send us a text Summary We look in this episode at Schiess' chapter on the civil rights movement, and discuss in particular the use of the Christian message in social issues, and the death of Christendom. We also discuss whether the career of "panda pastor" is more or less justified than the belief that America is a Christian nation. Notes Our thanks and appreciation to our partners: A production of the Centre for the Study of Bible and Violence. https://www.csbvbristol.org.uk/ Huge appr...
Send us a text Summary In this episode, we look at chapters 3 and 4, in which Schiess looks at the use of scripture in both the defense of American slavery and in the social gospel. We look at how we use the stories of scripture to form our identities, where that can fall short and be misused. We talk about how easy it is to find what one wants to find in scripture, as well as the ways in which deep engagement with scripture tends to lead people to God's heart for reconciliation and liberati...
Send us a text Summary In this first episode of Season 2, new host Gabe Magnus joins Ashley to talk about the introduction and first two chapters of The Ballot and the Bible: how scripture has been used and abused in American politics, and where we go from here. We discuss the importance of context, responsible application, and how this book of political theology is in fact a book that encourages us to do biblical interpretation well and carefully in any sphere. We discuss Schiess' helpful i...
Send us a text Summary We were delighted and honoured that Bill Webb and Gord Oeste, the authors of this excellent work, were willing to take a substantial amount of time to sit down and chat with us about many of the questions that have occurred to us in our study. Time Stamps 00:01:30 Introduction of Bill Webb and Gord Oeste 00:02:55 How do your dual vocations of pastor and scholar connect for you? 00:08:40 If you had the chance to re-write the book, what would you do differently, or d...
Send us a text Summary In this final episode, we look at Webb and Oeste’s insightful final chapter. Here, they look at how the death, resurrection, and final victory of Jesus forever changes – and in fact undoes – the place of warfare and violence in God’s kingdom. Jesus’ death undoes ethnic strife and conflict, but rather makes for peace, reconciliation, and forgiveness. We think about the power of having a God who meets us and even suffers with us in our hurt, and in the hurt and torment o...
Send us a text Summary In this episode, we look at a number of the texts that describe God in the Old Testament as a warrior, and then at many of the texts that suggest that God is uncomfortable being associated with physical violence. We also delve deeply into a few particular texts. We look at the unique quality of the biblical creation story, and what it says about Israel’s God. We examine the gut punch that is the violence and suffering in the book of Lamentations. And we consider what t...
Send us a text Summary In this difficult and sobering episode, we look at a range of ancient – and not-so-ancient – war practices that were common in the Ancient Near East. But though we talk about what these horrific practices entailed (we hope, in ways that are not unnecessarily gruesome), what’s most interesting is in their connection with scripture. While scripture is aware of all these practices, biblical law disallowed virtually all of them. We begin to talk about the ultimate justice o...
Send us a text Summary In this episode, we dive into how Webb and Oeste explain the relationship between the "drive out" and "total kill" instructions in Scripture. We see that it doesn’t make sense for them to be two words for the same thing, but they are related. They actually function as two means to the same end, and we'll discuss how the authors develop this idea of "shared-goal equivalency." This conversation led us to talk about God's mercy and patience, and to re-evaluate whethe...
Send us a text Summary While Bloody, Brutal, and Barbaric? is about the Canaanite conquest, as we read the chapter on Saul and the Amalekites, we couldn’t help but notice how strongly it is highlighted that Saul is an unfit leader, who cares about his own glory and position, far more than he cares about obedience to God. Perhaps it is the current reckoning in which much of the evangelical church finds itself, but we felt we’d be remiss if we didn’t stop and consider how this Old Testament te...
Send us a text Summary In a slightly short episode, we talk about 1 Samuel 15, and some of the ways in which it seems, at first glance, to be a challenge to Webb and Oeste’s suggestion that hyperbole is an extensive part of how war instructions are given and carried out in Israel. What becomes apparent is that hyperbole is most definitely in use in that text, also, and we consider what that means, and what the author of Samuel intends for the readers to hear. And since the subject and tone ...
Send us a text Summary In this episode, we talk through chapters 8-10 of Bloody, Brutal, and Barbaric?, which address the use of hyperbole in the conquest narratives, and addresses some of the arguments against hyperbole. We talk about reading the bible seriously, the appeal of “literal,” and how literalism creates more problems than it solves. We also discuss different sorts of hyperbole that were frequently employed in the Ancient Near East, most of which also occur in scripture, and where...
Send us a text Summary In an equally difficult second part to our conversation on war rape, we begin to unpack what Ancient Near Eastern war practices looked like with regards to enemy women, in order to understand how the law in Deuteronomy 21:10-14 makes improvements. Though the specifics of the law remain reprehensible to our current values, it does become evident that in ancient Israel, even captive brides are given a level of status and consideration that is completely unprecedented in t...
Send us a text Summary In part one of this very uncomfortable episode, we try to think through the issue of forced marriage and war rape as addressed in Deuteronomy 21:10-14. We wrestle with our disgust for the practice, trying to see it through both our modern understanding of issues of power imbalance and consent, and also how it might have been understood by the first readers as an improvement on standard ancient war practice. Finally, we consider how this might inform our ethical position...
Send us a text Summary Carrying on from the prior episode, we continue to talk about divine purpose and human failings, messy toddlers, and the sometimes painful results and moral grey areas wrought by the actions of humans who are in process. An interesting conversation about non-combatant innocents and theological innocence leads to questions about unintentional category shifts in scholarship, and raises (though doesn’t explore!) questions about the differing Calvinist/Arminian perspectives...
Send us a text Summary With less awkwardness and a little more laughter, we talk about chapters 2-4 of Bloody, Brutal, and Barbaric. We think about the trouble with traditional answers to the Canaanite conquest and the importance of perspective. Patterns in scripture, such as the concern for sacred space and literal and figurative Canaanites, help to provide a framework for a redemptive reading of scripture. We also have good conversations about our perspectives of God, and where they might b...
Send us a text Summary In our inaugural episode, we give an overview of some of the biblical texts that talk about the slaughter of innocents and war rape that rightly cause us such ethical discomfort. Pushing through the awkwardness of never having done this before, we talk about what we hope to gain from reading this book and give an overview of the authors’ arguments, and talk about how hard questions sometimes emerge from deeper faith, and not skepticism. We also consider how we picture ...
Send us a text During this between season break, guest Gabe Magnus joins Ashley to discuss a small but profound meditation on war, militarization, and neighbour love found in the story of Aldarion and Erendis, from the the Unfinished Tales of J. R. R. Tolkien, as well as some of the implications that we see as citizens of the peaceable kingdom. Our thanks and appreciation to our partners: A production of the Centre for the Study of Bible and Violence. https://www.csbvbristol.org.uk/ Podc...
Send us a text During this between season break, guest Gabe Magnus joins Ashley to discuss a small but profound meditation on war, militarization, and neighbour love found in the story of Aldarion and Erendis, from the Unfinished Tales of J. R. R. Tolkien, as well as some of the implications that we see as citizens of the peaceable kingdom. Our thanks and appreciation to our partners: A production of the Centre for the Study of Bible and Violence. https://www.csbvbristol.org.uk/ Podcast ...