Flood and Fury

What do we do with a God who sanctions violence?Old Testament violence proves one of the most troubling topics in the Bible. Too often, the explanations for the brutality in Scripture fail to adequately illustrate why God would sanction such horrors on humanity. These unanswered questions leave readers frustrated and confused, leading some to even walk away from their faith.In Flood and Fury, Old Testament scholar Matthew Lynch approaches two of the most violent passages in the Old Testament - the Flood and the Canaanite conquest - and offers a way forward that doesn't require softening or ignoring the most troubling aspects of these stories. While acknowledging the persistent challenge of violence in Scripture, Flood and Fury contends that reading with the grain of the text yields surprising insights into the goodness and the mercy of God. Through his exploration of themes related to violence including misogyny, racism, and nationalism, Lynch shows that these violent stories illuminate significant theological insights that we might miss with a surface reading.Flood and Fury challenges us to let go of the need to rescue the Old Testament from itself and listen afresh to its own critiques on violence.

Matthew J. Lynch is associate professor of Old Testament at Regent College in Vancouver, Canada. He is the author of First Isaiah and the Disappearance of the Gods, Portraying Violence in the Hebrew Bible: A Literary and Cultural Study, and Monotheism and Institutions in the Book of Chronicles: Temple, Priesthood, and Kingship in Post-Exilic Perspective. He is the co-founder of the OnScript podcast, a podcast focused on providing engaging conversations on Bible and theology.

List of Figures and Tables Foreword by Helen Paynter AcknowledgmentsPart One: A Real Problem (with Options) 1. Facing the Problem (Without Burning Down Your House) 2. Finding Our Way Part Two: Shalom and Its Shattering 3. Shalom in Creation's DNA 4. Violence Against Women in the Bible's Prologue 5. Creation's Collapse 6. Shalom Redux Part Three: Reading Joshua with Yeshua 7. Wielding the Sword 8. Negotiating with the Enemy 9. Minority Report 10. Show Them No Mercy 11. Completing the Exodus in Canaan 12. Giants Will Fall 13. Worship as WarfarePart Four: The Old Testament and the Character of God 14. What the Old Testament Says About God's Character 15. Irresolvable Figure Credits General Index Scripture Index