Laying Down the Sword

Philip Jenkins delivers a fearless examination of the dark and violent verses of the Bible—and a call for us to read them anew in pursuit of a richer, more honest faith. From "one of America's best scholars ofreligion" (The Economist), this daring exploration of the Scripture'smost difficult passages forces us to confront and accept the violence that wasas integral to the formulation of Christianity's message as it was for manyother of the world's religions, and shows us how a full understanding of theScripture will allow us to finally move towards a more peaceful, spiritualworld. Readers of Bart Ehrman's God's Problem, John Selby Spong's The Sins of Scripture, andJenkins's own The Jesus Wars, as well as every Christian eager to square the recurrent violence of the Scripture with Christianity's enduring message of peace, will find these difficult questions explored in full in Laying Down the Sword.