![Laying Down the Sword](https://img.perlego.com/book-covers/590203/9780062098559_300_450.webp)
- 320 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Laying Down the Sword
Philip Jenkins
About This Book
Commands to kill, to commit ethnic cleansing, to institutionalize segregation, to hate and fear other races and religionsâall are in the Bible, and all occur with a far greater frequency than in the Qur'an. But fanaticism is no more hard-wired in Christianity than it is in Islam. In Laying Down the Sword, "one of America's best scholars of religion" ( The Economist ) explores how religions grow past their bloody origins, and delivers a fearless examination of the most violent verses of the Bible and an urgent call to read them anew in pursuit of a richer, more genuine faith.
Christians cannot engage with neighbors and critics of other traditionsânor enjoy the deepest, most mature embodiment of their own faithâuntil they confront the texts of terror in their heritage. Philip Jenkins identifies the "holy amnesia" that, while allowing scriptural religions to grow and adapt, has demanded a nearly wholesale suppression of the Bible's most aggressive passages, leaving them dangerously dormant for extremists to revive in times of conflict. Jenkins lays bare the whole Bible, without compromise or apology, and equips us with tools for reading even the most unsettling texts, from the slaughter of the Canaanites to the alarming rhetoric of the book of Revelation.
Laying Down the Sword presents a vital framework for understanding both the Bible and the Qur'an, gives Westerners a credible basis for interaction and dialogue with Islam, and delivers a powerful model for how a faith can grow from terror to mercy.
Frequently asked questions
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Contents
- Definitions
- Introduction - Motes and Beams
- Part I - Scripture as Problem
- Part II - The Inheritance
- Part III - Truth and Reconciliation
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
- Index
- About the Author
- Also by Philip Jenkins
- Credits
- Copyright
- About the Publisher