"In this readable and contemporary book, Caroline Blyth provides us with a safe space to discuss the rich but challenging theme of biblical violence. She provides a roadmap to guide the reader through cases of physical violence-including the image of God as a warrior; of gender-based, often sexual, violence; of structural and hierarchical misuse of power and of the language of violence. She draws out wider issues of power dynamics and emotional damage that cause violence and she opens a window into a biblical world that confronts and speaks to today's world in profound ways."

- Katharine Dell, University of Cambridge, UK

"Caroline Blyth serves up a platter worthy of Salome-though, yes, the Bible does not actually name Salome in the story featuring John the Baptist's severed head. Like many other squeamish normal people, I enjoy a gory tale-from the comfort of my home, that is. As an academic, I value scholarship on the Bible that is thorough, accurate, and accessible. This wonderful read on murder, sacrifice, and other biblical violence makes both parts of me-the normal and the scholarly-feel very satisfied."

- Johanna Stiebert, Professor of Hebrew Bible, University of Leeds, UK

"Caroline Blyth's Violence & the Bible for Normal People is a brief but sobering journey through case studies that illustrate the main types of violence that we find represented and even endorsed within the Bible. Blyth does a masterful yet accessible job of illuminating not only the violence attributed to God, to God's people, and to their enemies, but also the values and power asymmetries that sustain and are sustained by that violence. Importantly, this journey compels us to grapple with those values and power asymmetries that are still with us and their relationship to the violence we still see around us all."

- Dan McClellan, Public scholar and honorary fellow at the Cadbury Centre for the Public Understanding of Religion

"In writing about power and its abuses in the biblical story, Blyth has written a book that is potentially empowering for its readers. She shows the complexity of biblical storytelling and therefore of interpretation as she consistently seeks to do justice both to these fearsome ancient texts and to their contemporary readers-and importantly, to victims of their misinterpretation."

- Ellen F. Davis, Amos Ragan Kearns Distinguished Professor of Bible and Practical Theology, Duke Divinity School