The titular question of this book is one I have asked in many different forms when I have read the old testament stories of conquest and war. As a believer, these passages cause me great internal conflict. How do I reconcile the loving message of Jesus with the apparent genocide described in Joshua and other old testament books? Is the conquest described there any different that the genocide of the Native Americans on this continent?

The authors present a detailed, through and sometimes dense answer to multiple aspects of this question. The most encouraging part of the book to me is its very existence. The authors are more conservative than me, but they respect scripture and the questions it raises. I am relieved to know I am not alone in struggling with these questions in my faith. I am glad the authors consider these questions important enough to bring intense intellectual prowess, historical research, and theological scholarship to bear.

Their final answer to the question is "No." I cannot do their book-length argument justice in this review, but I will try to provide a summary. The Canaanites were not innocent, and the evil they perpetuated was so vile and unrepentant for centuries, that God issued a unique exemption to the normal prohibition against killing innocent people. God's goal for his people was not the extermination of the Canaanites but driving them out of the land. Indeed, they were not exterminated as is evident from continuing conflict later in the Old Testament. God's justice was not partial; when the Israelites turned away from him for centuries, he drove them out of the land just as he did the Canaanites. Even this line of argument raises many uncomfortable questions, which the authors address with thoroughness and depth.

Their answers are not perfect; for example, they sometimes split the hair between what God commanded and what his leaders (e.g. Moses) commanded a little to thinly for me. However, reading this book has given me confidence that God welcomes these questions and has answers.

I think two chapters in the final part of the book (on Jihad and Just War) do not fit with the core message and are more distracting than helpful. The book's greatest strength is is depth and focus on Christians dealing with a difficult portion of our scriptures. Branching out into Islam subverts this strength and could be seen as a tu quoque fallacy. Just war is an extremely important and fascinating topic, but trying to address it in a single chapter gives it short shrift and does not fit well with the rest of the book. I think the book would have been better served by replacing these two chapters with chapters about the genocide of Native Americans and other atrocities committed in the name of the church (some are briefly mentioned).

Even after reading this book, some of the stories of the conquest still make me uncomfortable, and I think that is as it should be. Right or not, such violence should not be treated lightly.

Overall, this book has significantly eroded an important stumbling block to my faith, and I recommend it for anyone who wants to take the Bible seriously but struggles with what appears to be God commanding genocide. ( )