Peace, Violence and the New Testament

Download or read book Peace, Violence and the New Testament written by Michel Robert Desjardins and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 1997-02-01 with total page 135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the centuries, New Testament texts have inspired both peace activism and violence towards others. Most Christians, including New Testament scholars, continue to find peace at the core of these scriptures, and consider that the use of violence misrepresents basic Christian beliefs. This challenging study contends that the New Testament promotes violence as strongly as it promotes peace. Through close analysis of a wide range of texts, Desjardins shows how foundational both peace and violence are in the New Testament, and then suggests that the leading interpretative theories in this area do not do justice to the complexity of the primary sources.