Solid Trajectory, But Not Far Enough. I'm not completely sold that the "trajectory" reading of the Bible Flood bases his premise on is entirely correct, but for now let's go with it. Flood raises a lot of good points that will, as the title implies, "step on toes" across "both" sides of the American political divide. But there are certainly times where he contradicts himself and others where he reveals his own cloudy understanding of violence, choosing to view violence only as genocide, murder, explicit assault, and the like. But in the end, Flood doesn't go quite far enough in his own line of reasoning and instead tends to embrace certain forms of "acceptable" violence, in ways reminiscent of the very blatantly antiquated notions he is attacking in this book. Absolutely recommended for those that either openly embrace the wanton slaughter of the Old Testament or those that fully reject it, as this will at least open you to the basic concepts of nonviolence. ( )

Disclaimer: I was provided with a free advance copy of Disarming Scripture in exchange for an honest review.

The western worldview is currently undergoing massive changes, which are in turn affecting the ways Christians everywhere read their Bibles. Past centuries of biblical study have (in some circles) produced a literalist reading of Scripture that is sometimes summed up as: “The Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it!” However, in the past, this reading has sadly led Christians to support violence, torture, and even genocide - all in the name of God! While many Christians in today’s postmodern environment intuitively revolt against the idea of a violent God, we often have a hard time finding new ways forward.

This is where Derek Flood’s brilliant book comes in. Disarming Scripture convincingly makes the case that the God behind even the most disturbing Bible passages is in fact a non-violent, self-giving Heavenly Father. To make his case, Derek Flood introduces several helpful hermeneutical lenses, such as:

- A Christo-centric approach to Scripture, which is understanding God’s character as fully revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. All competing biblical voices must submit to Jesus’ non-violent actions and teachings.
- Jesus’ own way of explaining the Old Testament, in which he consistently redeems violent views of God to reveal His true nature, which is centered around compassion and enemy-love.
- A Trajectory Reading, which holds that the morality of the Bible is on a gradually ascending track, moving towards inclusion, compassion, and enemy-love. According to this hermeneutical lens, we need to recognize the many areas in which we have actually moved (or should move) beyond 1st century morality today, for example in rejecting the evils of slavery, homophobia, racism, treating women and children as second-class citizens, etc….
- A tool to evaluate competing biblical interpretations: by their fruit. In the past, a literalistic approach to Scripture has led so many well-intentioned Christians to cause others tremendous amounts of pain - all in the name of God! Derek Flood argues that this surely runs counter to the spirit of Christ, who is about redeeming victims, not creating them.

Disarming Scripture is a truly groundbreaking book. It provides a theologically sound way for today’s Christians to understand the place of violent texts in our Canon, while following Jesus’ way of enemy-love. I highly recommend it! ( )

Wow, really great book. As a college student, this was a very insightful and thought provoking read. It was not hard to read nor was there too much of scholarly talk where it gets confusing or over my head. Flood brings up many great points about how Christ read the scriptures and how we should read them the same way. The book really opened my eyes to things I never picked up on or thought about before. As I was unsure of this book from the beginning, I am glad that I read it. I am grateful for Flood's knowledge and how he conveyed it in his work. ( )

Recently I have been on a personal journey discovering that God really is like Jesus. My background is Charismatic [w/Anabaptist & Eastern Orthodox-tendencies]. I believe the solution to bad theology is always good theology. For the best theology possible, we can look no further than the life and person of Jesus: Jesus Christ is perfect theology. While exploring the implications of "Jesus Christ is perfect theology" and "God is like Jesus", I began to wrestle with some questions:

--If Jesus Christ is perfect theology: is violence an attribute of God?
--If Jesus Christ is perfect theology: how did Jesus read his Bible?
--Can we learn to read the bible like Jesus did?

I was excited to discover Derek Flood's Disarming Scripture explored and satisfied these questions for me. I came to very clear conclusions to my questions while reading. The book held simple answers to deep theological questions, written in an easy to understand and conversational style. So if you're like me, and you’ve wrestled with any of those questions, you can explore answers in Disarming Scripture.

I am an avid highlighter with my Kindle books, but I don't usually highlight the whole book. I noticed another reviewer mention the 300+ highlights when he read through the book. I was surprised to find myself highlighting just as much (or maybe more)! It was hard to go through a page without highlighting really good points!

Specific highlights for me were Derek’s answers to all the common “What if’s?” questions that can come up in people’s minds over the subject of nonviolence. For example, have you ever wondered about all the War Imagery in Paul’s epistles? Does Jesus’ praise of the Roman-centurion mean He endorses the military? Was Jesus endorsing violence by the purchase of swords by His disciples? What did Jesus mean when He said, “I’ve come Not to bring Peace, but a sword”? How do you explain Jesus cleansing the temple? What about Paul and the State-sanctioned violence? Derek addresses all of these with clarity.

Like I said, I highlighted nearly the entire book, but here’s a few of my favorite quotes:

“In order for a Jesus lens to be practical we need to dig deeper to uncover the underlying hermeneutical lens that Jesus himself used as he read Scripture, and learn to apply this ourselves as we read.”

“Jesus and Paul both see God as our model of enemy love. That means that God does not have a different standard of morality than we do. Rather, God in Christ reveals the way of enemy love that we are to follow. God is Christlike. If you have seen Jesus, you have seen the Father.”

“The way of nonviolence, radical forgiveness, and enemy love we are called to is one that is modeled after God’s character revealed in Christ.”

“Jesus puts us on this redemptive trajectory by revealing God’s heart characterized by unconditional enemy love.” ( )

After two readings of this fine book, already I feel equipped to be a more courageous, compassionate, Christological interpreter of scripture.

Towards the end of my second reading, I paused, knelt and thanked God for this book. It is such an answered prayer. It ministered to me deeply, as it showed me how compassionately and courageously Jesus and Paul read the scriptures. I want to do the same.

Biblical and theological questions that I had not been able to find satisfying answers for were finally answered! Most importantly, however, I had an experience (like that of the disciples in Luke 24.32) wherein my heart burned within me as Derek more adequately explained the scriptures to me. I feel like my love for Jesus is growing, and I am just genuinely excited to get the chance to live for Him.

I am confident that this book will be a game-changer when it comes to both your theology and your discipleship to Jesus. Tolle lege. Take up and read! ( )