Here are essays I have written that address themes related to the Bible and peace.
On the Bible as a whole
Biblical bases for restorative justice. Lecture. December 1, 2008.
The Bible’s salvation story. Blog post. August 13, 2012.
Why the Bible matters for theology. Blog post. December 8, 2012.
Salvation and the way of peace:
- The problem. Blog post. December 13, 2013.
- The Old Testament. Blog post. December 14, 2013.
- Jesus’s life and teaching. Blog post. December 16, 2013.
- Jesus’s death and resurrection. Blog post. January 21, 2014.
- Romans and Revelation. Blog post. January 22, 2014.
- Is there an atonement theory in this story? Blog post. February 3, 2014.
Does the Bible have a coherent peace message? Blog post. February 17, 2015.
Does the Bible teach anarchism?—Blog post. August 25, 2014.
An anarchistic reading of the Bible:
- Approaching the Bible. Lecture. January 25, 2015
- Creation and what follows. Lecture. February 2, 2015.
- Exodus and Torah. Lecture. February 8, 2015.
- Conquest and kingship. Lecture. February 16, 2015.
- Prophetic critique. Lecture. February 22, 2015.
- Messiah. Lecture. March 23, 2015.
Some biblical bases for pacifism. Blog post. November 4, 2017.
Why the Bible need not be a problem for pacifists. Blog post. December 16, 2019.
It’s not the Bible’s fault that Christians are violent. Blog post. February 9, 2021.
On the Old Testment
Christian pacifism encounter the Old Testament. Lecture. 1991.
Seeing mercy in the Old Testament. Magazine article. September 6, 2005.
The Old Testament law. Newspaper articles. Summer 2009.
The Old Testament God. Newspaper articles. Fall 2010.
Old Testament peace theology. Lecture. June 1, 2012.
War and the Old Testament: A Proposal. Blog post. October 3, 2011.
How the Old Testament story refutes the God-as-punisher assumption. Blog post. May 25, 2015.
Christian salvation, part two: Old Testament mercy. Lecture. September 21, 2015.
A positive reading of the Old Testament. Sermon. July 9, 2017.
An interesting book on divine violence: Review of Hofreiter—Making Sense of Divine Genocide. Published book review. August 16, 2018.
A response to Old Testament violence. Blog post. September 17, 2018.
Responding to Greg Boyd’s writings on God and violence. 34 blog posts. May 2017–November 2018.
Is the Old Testament actually dying? Blog post. March 15, 2019.
On the book of Joshua
Saving the Joshua story? An anarchistic reading. Blog post. November 13, 2014.
On the prophets
The prophet Amos and restorative justice. Book chapter. 1999.
The Old Testament prophets. Newspaper articles. Summer 2007.
On the New Testament
Jesus’s confrontation with empire. Book chapter. 2006.
What does Jesus’s death mean? Book chapter. 2000.
Summarizing John Howard Yoder’s “The Politics of Jesus.” Essay. 2008.
A positive reading of the New Testament. Sermon. October 8, 2017.
On the gospels
Jesus and Herod: Two kinds of kings. Magazine article. December 22, 1998.
John’s gospel in brief. Newspaper articles. Spring 2012.
Are we in debt to God? [Luke 4]. Sermon. October 10, 2016.
On the book of Romans
Romans as a peace book: A Yoderian reading. Book chapter. 2010.
Justice apart from the law (and empire): Paul’s deconstruction of idolatry. Lecture. 2008.
Romans 13 supports pacifism. Blog post. May 1, 2011.
Six sermons: Romans 1–6. Sermons. 2014-5.
A note on Romans 13 and Christian warism. Blog post. November 30, 2015.
What does Romans 13 actually teach? Blog post. June 18, 2018.
On the book of Revelation
The justice of God in the book of Revelation. Book chapter. 1988.
How should 20th-century Christians read the book of Revelation? Magazine article. January 21, 1992.
Victory over the powers of death and evil: The book of Revelation and peace. Magazine article. January 16, 2001.
Revelation is about Jesus, not vengeance. Magazine article. September 2, 2008.
Reading Revelation (and the whole Bible) as a peace book. Book chapter. 2011.
The book of Revelation and the end of Christianity. Blog post. April 12, 2011.
What does the book of Revelation say? 18 part blog series. September-November 2013.
There’s power in the blood: Revelation’s patience and creation’s transformation. Lecture. September 21, 2014.
Revelation is a peace book! Blog post. June 24, 2015.
Revelation, God’s wrath, healing justice, and Mennonite Church USA. Blog post. July 6, 2015.
Is the book of Revelation on Falwell’s side? Blog post. December 9, 2015.
A non-apocalyptic reading of the Apocalypse of Jesus. Blog post. May 30, 2016.
The Book of Revelation’s revelation to Eastern Mennonite University. Lecture. October 15, 2016.
The book of Revelation and America’s election: Christian faith in the Trump era. Blog post. December 10, 2016.
The book of Revelation on living in empire: Christian faith in the Trump era. Blog post. December 11, 2016.
The book of Revelation and the problem of violence: A response to John Dominic Crossan. Blog post. October 11, 2017.
What if Revelation 14 is about punitive judgment after all? Blog post. May 4, 2018.
The Bible, violence, and John Dominic Crossan—With special attention to the book of Revelation. Blog post. May 8, 2018.
God and punitive violence in Revelation. Blog post. July 29, 2018.
Revelation for post-Christians. Blog post. June 27, 2019.
War of words: The key to understanding the book of Revelation. Blog post. July 22, 2019.
Are we living in “the Great Tribulation”? Blog post. August 13, 2019.
Our need for the book of Revelation’s peace message. Blog post. January 5, 2021.
Living in a broken world: Power, love, and the plagues in Revelation. Blog post. January 15, 2021.
Satan in the book of Revelation—and today. Blog post. January 20, 2021.
How Revelation’s non-predictive prophecy speaks to our pandemic. Blog post. January 29, 2021.
Thinking Pacifism 