God is not a terrorist (reflections on Scripture & terrible love)

February 18, 2015

bible / hebrew-bible / jonathan martin / theology

This is not a parlor trick. This does not trivialize how we read our Old Testament, but rather emboldens those “texts of terror” to speak life into us again. It is a kind of reading that requires tenacity, disciplined engagement, and nothing less than the Spirit of God herself to reveal them to us. It is, in short, a way of reading Scripture that requires Jesus to teach us, to instruct us. Over and against much of the project of textual criticism in the 20th century, I am not looking for way of understanding the Bible that does not require God. I want a way of reading Scripture that requires God in order to work.