Dark Passages Of The Bible

Following the lead of Pope Benedict XVI, in Dark Passages of the Bible Matthew Ramage weds the historical-critical approach with a theological reading of Scripture based in the patristic-medieval tradition. Whereas these two approaches are often viewed as mutually exclusive or even contradictory, Ramage insists that the two are mutually enriching and necessary for doing justice to the Bible s most challenging texts.

Difficult passages of Scripture have confused people for centuries. But the good news is that we can work through them and arrive at a deeper knowledge of who God really is, leading us o a closer relationship with him.

Does God kill people? Why do the innocent suffer? Is Hell a just punishment? Why would God allow Jesus to be crucified? The Old Testament God vs. New Testament God - are they the same person? If you've read the Bible, you may have had these questions cross your mind. Or, you've heard your non-believing friends ask these questions to justify their disbelief. How do we reconcile these questions with our Faith in a loving, just God? The good news is that we CAN work through these difficult passages and arrive at a deeper knowledge of who God really is, leading to a closer relationship with him. Light on the Dark Passages of Scripture guides you through God's revelation, interpreting challenging texts, providing reasonable answers to nagging questions, and showing the mercies of a loving God. "The best book I know that explains - and doesn't explain away - the truly difficult texts of scripture. I can't recommend this book enough!" - Ralph Martin, S.T.D. "Guides us through the museum of 'dark passages' and eventually leads us to the display of God's love in Christ as the answer to the human messiness of redemptive history." - Taylor Marshall, PhD

The Bible is a religious masterpiece. Its authors cast a profound vision for the healing of humanity through the power of divine love, grace and forgiveness. But the Bible also contains "dark texts" that challenge our ethical imagination. How can one book teach us to love our enemies and also teach us to slaughter Canaanites? Why does a book that preaches the equality of all people -- male and female, slave and free, Greek and Jew -- also include laws that permit God's people to trade in slaves and to persecute those of a different faiths or ethnicities? In Sacred Word, Broken Word Kenton Sparks argues that the "dark side" of Scripture is not an illusion. Rather, these dark texts remind us that all human beings, including the biblical authors, stand in need of God's redemptive solution in Jesus Christ.

Hailed as "the most radical repackaging of the Bible since Gutenberg", these Pocket Canons give an up-close look at each book of the Bible.

Jesus Christ is arguably the most famous man who ever lived. His image adorns countless churches, icons, and paintings. He is the subject of millions of statues, sculptures, devotional objects and works of art. Everyone can conjure an image of Jesus: usually as a handsome, white man with flowing locks and pristine linen robes. But what did Jesus really look like? Is our popular image of Jesus overly westernized and untrue to historical reality? This question continues to fascinate. Leading Christian Origins scholar Joan E. Taylor surveys the historical evidence, and the prevalent image of Jesus in art and culture, to suggest an entirely different vision of this most famous of men. He may even have had short hair.

German scholar Gerd Ludemann asks the question of how we can continue to be Christians in the light of what he sees as "unholy" elements in Scripture, and in response points to the person of Jesus and his example.

Commands to kill, to commit ethnic cleansing, to institutionalize segregation, to hate and fear other races and religions—all are in the Bible, and all occur with a far greater frequency than in the Qur’an. But fanaticism is no more hard-wired in Christianity than it is in Islam. In Laying Down the Sword, “one of America’s best scholars of religion” (The Economist) explores how religions grow past their bloody origins, and delivers a fearless examination of the most violent verses of the Bible and an urgent call to read them anew in pursuit of a richer, more genuine faith. Christians cannot engage with neighbors and critics of other traditions—nor enjoy the deepest, most mature embodiment of their own faith—until they confront the texts of terror in their heritage. Philip Jenkins identifies the “holy amnesia” that, while allowing scriptural religions to grow and adapt, has demanded a nearly wholesale suppression of the Bible’s most aggressive passages, leaving them dangerously dormant for extremists to revive in times of conflict. Jenkins lays bare the whole Bible, without compromise or apology, and equips us with tools for reading even the most unsettling texts, from the slaughter of the Canaanites to the alarming rhetoric of the book of Revelation. Laying Down the Sword presents a vital framework for understanding both the Bible and the Qur’an, gives Westerners a credible basis for interaction and dialogue with Islam, and delivers a powerful model for how a faith can grow from terror to mercy.