Brian Truog

Date of Award

5-1-1983

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Sacred Theology (STM)

Department

Exegetical Theology

First Advisor

Horace Hummel

Scripture References in this Resource

Romans 13:2; 1 Kings 22:5-8; 1 Samuel 14:36-37; 1 Samuel 16:14; 1 Samuel 28:6; 1 Samuel 28-31; 1 Samuel 30:7; 1 Samuel 7:9; 2 Chronicles 20:21-22; 2 Samuel 11:11; 2 Samuel 5:23-24; Acts 13:17-19; Deuteronomy 20:2-4; Deuteronomy 20:5-9; Deuteronomy 34:9; Exodus 15:3; Exodus 17:16; Isaiah 13:3; Isaiah 31:5; Judges 1:1-2; Judges 11:29; Judges 16:20; Judges 20:23; Judges 20:27; Judges 5:2; 9; Judges 6:34; Judges 7:13-14; Numbers 14:40-45; Numbers 31:3; Psalm 24

Abstract

The main purpose of this thesis is to gain a general overview of recent scholarship in the area of Holy War in the Old Testament. Holy War is a "problem" for the Christian for at least two reasons. First, the concept of holy War in the Old Testament is often a major point used in stressing the discontinuity between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Contrasts are set up between the Old Testament as a book of Law and the New Testament as a book of Gospel. The Old Testament is seen as containing a primitive form of religion that later evolved into the "love" concepts of "Sweet Jesus." As a result, Holy War, along with most of the Old Testament is, I believe, either ignored or "spiritualized" by the majority of Christianity today. In order to avoid this, the Christian must come to grips with the "problem” of the relevance of Holy War ideology for Christian ethics and warfare today. Secondly, the misuse of the concept of Holy War throughout Christian history to "justify" "just wars," Crusades and other political stances has been a major point of critique from outside the Church against the Christian faith.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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