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New Publication! The Bible and Violence on Theology & Religion Online

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Books and major publications
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New Publication! The Bible and Violence on Theology & Religion Online

We celebrate the online publication (and imminent print publication) of The Bible and Violence (Bloomsbury, 2026). The two volumes contain 100+ chapters and are co-edited by CRPL director Johanna Stiebert. Each volume contains chapters by subject experts. Among the chapters’ authors are Theology and Religious Studies Leeds University alumni Katherine Gwyther and Ruth Atack.

How does violence function in scripture? Who is harmed by particular interpretations? How can responsible reading of the Bible interrupt rather than perpetuate harm?

These questions and more are explored in the new landmark major reference work: The Bible and Violence on Bloomsbury’s Theology & Religion Online (TARO) platform. Bringing together over 100 chapters by scholars from around the world, these volumes examine violence in biblical texts and in their violent use and application across history and into the present day.

book covers showing, on the left, a brooding sky and scene of violence, as a figure holds a rock threateningly above another figure reaching desperately upwards, and, on the right, a crucifixion scene.

Image courtesy of Bloomsbury.

Free-to-read sample chapters

To celebrate the launch and support ongoing classroom discussions and research, several chapters are free to read on TARO’s Topic in Focus page for a limited time, including:

For more chapters, see:  www.theologyandreligiononline.com/featured-content

Many of the chapters in the volumes will hold interest for followers of Religion in Public. For a full listing of the Table of Contents, see here. In Volume 1 there are chapters covering each of the books in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, plus chapters on some additional influential texts. Volume 2 is likely to be of particular interest to Religion in Public followers.

Alongside the open access chapters on incel ideologies, right-wing discourses and rape culture listed above, Religion in Public readers might be interested in the following (just a sample!):

Genocidal Language in the Hebrew Bible: A Reappraisal (by M. I. Rey); On Censoring Biblical Narratives of Sexual Violence in the Synagogue (by Tali Artman Partock); Sexual Violence in the Crucifixion of Jesus (by David Tombs); Reading the Story of Jephthah's Daughter (Judg. 11) in the Light of Contemporary Experiences of Spiritual Abuse (by Kirsi Cobb and Sarah Molyneux-Hetherington); Trafficking and Enslavement in the Hebrew Bible (by Ericka Shawndricka Dunbar); A Wor(l)d Without Violence Against Women? Toward Reckoning with the Historic Patriarchy of 'Our' faith in John 8:1-11 (by Miranda Pillay); Promising Equality, Scaffolding Violence: Complementarianism as gender-regime, masculinity and gendered violence (by Rosie Clare Shorter); Script(ur)ing Violence: Pedagogical Approaches to teaching the Pauline Epistles (by Johnathan Jodamus); Mental Illness Metaphor and Colonial Sarcasm in Mark's Gospel: A Postcolonial Optic (by Zorodzai Dube); Seeing Hidden Crimes: Visual Art as Witness to Violence against Biblical Women (by Holly Morse); A Triptych of Biblical Violence Towards Gay and Transgender Christians: The Case of Malaysia (by Joseph N. Goh);  The Bible and Transphobia: The Violence of Binarism (by Alex Clare-Young); “Just don't be gay.” Contextually reading the Bible in the context of Homophobic Hate Crime in South Africa (by Charlene van der Walt); Violence and Biblical Sex Work (by Sarah Nicholson); Violence, Trauma, and the Bible (by Alexiana Fry): The Bible, Intersex Being and (Biomedical) Violence (by Susannah Cornwall); Reading against Homophobic Violence: Contextual Bible Reading with Ugandan LGBTQ+ Refugees in Kenya (by Adriaan van Klinken and Johanna Stiebert, with Sebyala Brian and Fredrick Hudson); The Uses of Biblical Texts and God Language by Religious Organisations in the Worldwide Sexual Abuse Crisis of Children (by Kathleen McPhillips); The Bible and the Violence of Fat Shaming (by Hannah Bacon); The Violence of Disablism in Biblical Literature (by Eleanor Vivian); The Bible and Abortion Activism: Violence and Averting Violence (by Sarah-Jane Page and Pam Lowe); The Ideological Dilemma of Suicide in Uganda: African Bible Hermeneutical Perspectives (by Robert Kuloba Wabyanga); The Bible and Slow/Everyday Violence (by Amy C. Cottrill); The Bible and Violence in Indian Tribal Christian Communities (by Chingboi Guite Phaipi); Striking like the Morning Star: How can Song of Songs 6:4–10 prevent domestic abuse? (by Erin Martine Hutton); Liberative Bible Readings to Combat Violence at Talitha Qumi Centre Legon, Ghana (by Joyce Boham); Resisting interlocking systems of violence: the Ujamaa Centre's CBS praxis (by Gerald West, Sithembiso Zwane and Charlene van der Walt); The Ethics of Citing Violent (Bible) Scholars (by Johanna Stiebert and Barbara Thiede); 'History Does Not Repeat Itself, But It Rhymes': Exploring Literary Representations of Violence in Bible in/and Literature (by L. Juliana Claassens); The Bible and Violence in Crime Fiction: Intertextual Echoes of the Book of Revelation in Three Contemporary Novels (by Alison Jack); The Bible and Violence: Modern Black Readers, Art, and Black Liberation Theology (by Allen Dwight Callahan); The Psychological Violence of Shunning in the Jehovah's Witnesses (by Heather Spooner); Praying Vengeance as Loving Your Enemies?: Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Christological Creatureliness (by Tim Judson); The Bible, Violence and Zionism (by Ruth Atack); Te Paipera Tapu me te Patu Tangata: Violent Texts and Historical Trauma from a Maori Perspective (by Te Aroha Rountree and Paul Reynolds); The Hebrew Bible and Violence: A legacy of Colonial Hermeneutics in Southern Africa (by T. K. Mapfeka); The Violence of North American Settler Use of Biblical Texts (by Matthew Anderson)…

Want more access?

The Bible and Violence collection is available for institutional purchase via subscription or perpetual access. For more questions and to arrange a free trial for your institution, recommend the resource to your librarian.

You can learn more about the digital resource by visiting: www.theologyandreligiononline.com/the-bible-and-violence

The hard copy will be available for library purchases later this year.