Greg Boyd – The Crucifixion of the Warrior God
Episode: Matt & Matt discuss violence in the OT with Greg Boyd, who has devoted the last 10 years to researching and writing about this vexed topic. Our discussion ranges from the relationship between the cross and the conquest, Greg’s theory of ‘literary crucifixes’ in the OT, how to relate the two Testaments, and more from Greg’s monumental new book The Crucifixion of the Warrior God: Interpreting The Old Testament’s Violent Portraits of God in Light of the Cross. And brace yourself … there are two speed rounds in this episode.
Guest: (from the reknew.org website) ‘Greg Boyd is an internationally recognized theologian, preacher, teacher, apologist and author. He has been featured on the front page of The New York Times, The Charlie Rose Show, CNN, National Public Radio, the BBC and numerous other television and radio venues.
Greg received his Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary (summa cum laude 1988), his M.Div. from Yale Divinity School (cum laude 1982), and his B.A. in Philosophy from the University of Minnesota (1979). He was a professor of theology for 16 years at Bethel University (St. Paul, MN) where he received the Teaching Excellence Award and Campus Leadership Award.
Greg is the co-founder of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota where he serves as Senior Pastor, speaking to thousands each week.
Greg has authored or co-authored 20 books and numerous academic articles, including his best-selling and award-winning Letters From a Skeptic and his recent books Repenting of Religion and The Myth of a Christian Nation. His apologetic writings and public debates on the historical Jesus and the problem of evil have helped many skeptics embrace faith, and his writings and seminars on spiritual transformation have had a revolutionary, freeing impact on thousands of believers.’ (For more about Greg, go HERE)
Book: In The Crucifixion of the Warrior God: Interpreting The Old Testament’s Violent Portraits of God in Light of the Cross (Fortress Press, 2017), Greg Boyd advances a thesis that the Old Testament’s violent texts should be re-interpreted to reflect the enemy embracing, forgiving, love of Christ shown most fully on the Cross. Greg positions this thesis in a long line of Christian interpretation that reaches back to the early Church theologian Origin. Greg outlines a crucicentric (cross-centered) hermeneutic in the first of his two volume, 1,400-page book, and proceeds to (re-)examine violent OT texts through the lens of the cross in volume 2.