Peter C. Craigie (1938–1985)

If I were to give this book a rating from 1 to 10 I would put it somewhere around 5. I will further explain this rating, but I must first say that despite this fact I would still highly recommend the book to anyone. Peter does an excellent job of expressing the theological and practical problems of the prevalence of war in the Old Testament. Throughout the entire book he hints at resolutions to these problems, which causes one to be hopeful and continue reading, but then in the last chapters he concedes that he has no real answers. Instead he turns from the problems entirely and instead proposes a Christian perspective on war in light of the Old and New Testaments. This is why I would highly recommend this book to anyone, because his thoughts and perspective on this are well thought out and definitely worth considering, however the book itself wanders from topic to topic and doesn't really give any helpful solution to its main problem.… (meer)

This is an excellent, readable, attempt to bring answers to the problems we find when reading the frequent violence present in the Old Testament. Craigie carefully takes us step by step through the different issues, providing a cumulative set of answers or approaches.

One of the particular strengths is the way he deftly weaves contemporary (well, contemporary to the 1970s) secular discussions around war (including von Clausewitz, Churchill) as well as serious theology, and possible Christian practical responses (building on Ellul). And the other is that he doesn't shy away from the difficulties, but finds the underlying causes for the divine-inspired violence (and the human-inspired too). He brings out the Old Testament purposes of this which were to become and maintain the nation of Israel, distinguishing from Jesus' life and teaching where he received violence, in order to inaugurate a future where there will be no violence.

Definitely recommended!… (meer)