What makes a violent story also a sacred text?
"Is this feeding your souls?" I asked after we slogged through another biblical bloodbath.
It's been another challenging season in our stalwart little adult education class.
For three months we've been journeying together through the Deuteronomic History, which is just a fancy-pants way of saying the books of 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings. All of them were likely compiled by an editor whose primary interest was the law of Torah, and particularly the ethical and theological teachings found in Deuteronomy.
In these books, there are familiar stories of familiar faces from our Sunday School years. The prophet Samuel, called by God in the darkness. Saul, the troubled, handsome king. David, beautiful and noble and tragically flawed, slayer of Goliath. Solomon the wise, builder of the temple. The prophet Elijah, fed by ravens in the wilderness, rushing to heaven in that sweet chariot.
