IN THIS LESSON
This conversation identifies how Jesus reinterpreted scripture and tradition, and how this offers us a framework for how to approach the violence we find in the text.
This session examines several instances of the political and religious violence that appear in the Hebrew bible, and considers how Jesus-centered reading addresses such violence. Time is also given to discussing theories of atonement, with emphasis on the insights of scapegoat theory.
Participants are invited to consider the ways that scholars use archeological data and literary perspectives to interrogate the sources and veracity of violent imagery in the Hebrew bible. The session argues that this imagery, in many cases, does not reflect or constitute the primary theological perspectives of these texts. It invites participants to reflect on the way that violence may be implicit in our contemporary theologies, and how Jesus offers us an alternative.