"In June 2019 the Centre for the Study of Bible and Violence (CSBV) held its inaugural academic conference, and we are delighted to present this collection of papers drawn from those presented at the event. The centre is a postgraduate research and study centre dedicated to working in the area of the interpretation of biblical texts of violence. This wide-ranging collection reflects the centre’s core values of generous collaboration, irenic listening, and multidisciplinary scholarship. Biblical violence presents a complex challenge to the biblical interpreter, the cultural commentator and to belief communities. In the pluriformity of interpretative approaches, the violent texts of the Bible have been taken up in ways that sometimes advance and sometimes challenge violence. Thus, biblical violence cannot be ’solved’ by the application of a single hermeneutical lens: this is a multidisciplinary and intercommunal problem requiring a range of approaches."--Back cover.