Making Sense of Old Testament Genocide: Christian Interpretations of Herem Passages (Oxford Theology and Religion Monographs)

Making Sense of Old Testament Genocide: Christian Interpretations of Herem Passages (Oxford Theology and Religion Monographs)

The divine commands to annihilate the seven nations living in Canaan (to 'devote them to destruction', herem in Biblical Hebrew) are perhaps the most morally troubling texts of the Hebrew and Christian bibles. Making Sense of Old Testament Genocide: Christian Interpretations of Herem Passages addresses the challenges these texts pose. It presents the various ways in which interpreters from the first century to the twenty-first have attempted to make sense of them. The most troubling approach was no doubt to read them as divine sanction and inspiration for violence and war: the analysis of the use of herem texts in the crusades, the inquisition, and various colonial conquests illustrates this violent way of reading the texts, which has such alarming contemporary relevance. Three additional approaches can also be traced to antiquity, viz. pre-critical, non-literal, and divine-command-theory readings. Finally, critics of Christianity from antiquity via the Enlightenment to today have referenced herem texts: their critical voices are included as well. Christian Hofreiter combines a presentation of a wide range of historical sources with careful analysis that scrutinizes the arguments made and locates the texts in their wider contexts. Influential contributions of such well-known figures as Augustine, Origen, Gregory the Great, Thomas Aquinas, and John Calvin are included, as well as those of critics such as Marcion, Celsus and Matthew Tindal, and less widely known texts such as crusading histories, songs and sermons, colonial conquest accounts, and inquisition manuals. The book thus sheds new light on the ways in which these texts have shaped the thoughts and actions of their readers through the centuries, and offers pertinent insights into how readers might be able to make sense of them today. "In this comprehensive study, Austrian scholar Christian Hofreiter offers an excellent survey of the Christian reception of the highly problematic Old Testament passages (in Deuteronomy, Joshua, and 1 Samuel 15) which demand the extinction of people." -- Christoph Stenschke, Biblisch-Theologische Akademie, Forum Wiedenest, Germany, Journal of Early Christian History "Hofreiter has done us a great service by compiling many examples of how these troubling texts have been received. Future scholarship on this topicwill benefit from his work, even as it continues to build upon it." -- Eric A. Seibert, Messiah College, Review of Biblical Literature "an engaging detailed historical analysis, accompanied by many informative footnotes." -- Roger Ryan, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Christian Hofreiter is a Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics (OCCA). From 2008-2012, Hofreiter served with the Oxford Pastorate as a chaplain to the graduate student body at the University of Oxford.