Texts of Terror: Divine Violence in Scripture

Episode 9: The final episode in our 3-part series on violence in scripture. In this episode we discuss how certain depictions of God in the Christian tradition seem somewhat paradoxical. On the one hand, God is loving and merciful and forgiving, and yet on the other hand, certain texts in the bible give us the idea that God takes violence into their own hands. Whether it be to command the people of God to obliterate their enemies (including their children) or to directly carry out this violence by the divine hand; divine acts of violent justice wherein the evil are swept away by a flood, drowned in a river, swallowed up by a sudden giant chasm in the ground...

So what do we do with this? Because if we just find ways to put this aside - while simultaneously believing it as many Christians are trained to do - then although the everyday God we believe in is good, the God that hovers over our shoulder is the one who is capable of genocide. This paradox can lie hidden for years, but it ultimately manifests itself in our real world anxieties, behaviours, ethics and spirituality.