Biblical Violence

  Conveners: helen paynter, trevor laurence  •    Email conveners

This study group is for those working on the hermeneutics of biblical violence in both testaments.
Biblical violence can be found within every genre of the Bible and is not a homogeneous entity: it is variously condemned, described, implored, threatened, endorsed or commanded. Biblical violence may be interpersonal, societal or international. It may be military, sexual or structural. It can be historical, mythological and eschatological. There are many unanswered questions that fall within this broad theme, and at times they present enormous pastoral and even missional problems to the Church. Further rigorous, confessional scholarship is imperative.

For all these reasons, a wide variety of hermeneutical approaches to a wide range of texts is needed. This group’s engagement with biblical books provides a forum for specific, focused conversation and collaboration on the hermeneutics of violence which transcends a focus on any one book or corpus and dialogues across genres and testaments.

The three years of the research group will each pick up on different hermeneutical approaches to biblical violence. These are as follows:

2020 – speech act theory
2021 – humour, satire and subversion
2022 – intertextuality

It is anticipated that the papers may then be collected in an edited volume.

We are issuing an open call for papers utilizing humour, satire, and/or subversion as a hermeneutical approach to biblical violence. All proposals must be submitted to the conveners by Feb 28, 2021. A maximum of four proposals will be selected by March 15. Authors will then be asked to submit their papers to Helen (copied to Trevor) by October 15. The papers will be posted on the IBR website.

During the session itself at the annual meeting, rather than simply reading a paper, presenters will give a 20-minute overview of the major points and discoveries in their papers. This presentation will be followed by a period of discussion on the paper.

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