Violence and the Bible - Helen Paynter

What do we do with ‘all that violence’ in the Bible?

This is one of the most persistent questions in the church today, and a tough nut to crack. Whether we are dealing with people who find the conquest of Canaan a stumbling-block to faith, or trying to work out how the Bible might speak into situations of domestic violence and sexual abuse, these questions just keep raising their heads. In our study day together we will try to tease out the various forms of violence in the Old Testament and discover some interpretive approaches that help us come to grips with them. We will take care, too, to ensure that we spend some time considering the pastoral and practical issues that these texts raise.

Helen Paynter is a Baptist minister, serving in local church ministry at Westbury Baptist Church, Bristol. She is also a tutor at Bristol Baptist College. She is the Director of the Centre for the Study of Bible and Violence, and the author of ‘God of Violence Yesterday, God of Love Today?’ (2019). She lives in Bristol with her husband and two of their three teenage daughters.