#71 John Dear with professor and theologian Kate Common on the two of the Great Heresies, the nonviolent origins of the Hebrew community and her book "Undoing Conquest".

On today’s new episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” I speak with Kate Common on the nonviolent origins of the Hebrew community as she describes in her new book, Undoing Conquest: Ancient Israel, the Bible, and the Future of Christianity (Orbis).

Dr. Kate Common is the Assistant Professor of Public and Practical Theology at Methodist Theological School in Ohio, and the Theologian-in-Residence at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Northampton, MA. (katecommon.com)

“In the battle of Jericho, in the book of Joshua, Israel’s army kills everyone-- men, women, children and livestock. Suddenly, human violence—genocide--is condoned by God,” she explains. But decades of archeological evidence from the “highland settlements,” she reports, now prove there was no genocide as Israel entered the promised land.

Instead of conquest and genocide, the Hebrews originated from a peaceful, nonmilitaristic movement of indigenous people who formed egalitarian communities living outside the reach of the Egyptian empire.

“These people never had a conquest story until 500 years later in 722 BCE when Israel was terrorized and conquered by the Assyrian empire. Later, they wrote their origins story as a conquest of the promised land, portraying themselves like the brutal, genocidal Assyrians!”

That false narrative has been used ever since to justify violence and has led us to two of the great heresies of our time.

White European colonists who killed millions of indigenous people and enslaved millions of Africans invoked this image, as did the white racists who created South Africa’s apartheid, and the Israeli warmakers and Christian Zionists who justify the recent genocide in Gaza.

Secretary of War Hegseth recently invoked the genocide described in Joshua to defend the US and Israeli war on Iran.

Jesus, Kate Common concludes, was calling us back to the Hebrew ideals that renounced empire and created egalitarian communities of peace and

Listen in and discover new insights in the biblical origins of Hebrew and Christian peacemaking.

beatitudescenter.org

Welcome to my Substack https://fatherjohndear.substack.com

...

Poddgruvan

#71 John Dear with professor and theologian Kate Common on the two of the Great Heresies, the nonviolent origins of the Hebrew community and her book "Undoing Conquest".

#79. John Dear in conversation with scripture scholar and author Wes Howard-Brook: "We're faced with the choice between the religion of empire or the religion of creation."

#78. John Dear with theologian/author/activist Lisa Sharon Harper: "We were three floors below ground, it was hot and the walls and floor were covered with roaches."

#77 John Dear in conversation with Zoughbi Zoughbi of Bethlehem, Palestine: "The West Bank is a prison, Gaza is a concentration camp."

#76 John Dear with Mel Duncan, co-founder of Nonviolent Peaceforce about his work all over the world, more recently in Palestine and St. Paul, MN: "Organized nonviolence led to ICE leaving Minneapolis."

#75 John Dear in conversation with bestseller writer Joyce Rupp on her award winning book "The Years of Ripening": "The Serenity Prayer is the prayer of elderhood, not just for AA!"

#74 Part 2 of 2: John Dear with authors John Dominic Crossan and Michael Okinczyc-Cruz on their new book "Jesus and Justice" and organizing work on the streets of Chicago: "We have a savage culture".

#73 Part 1 of 2: John Dear with scripture scholar John Dominic Crossan:"Has God given us the freedom to destroy ourselves and the world?"

#72 John Dear with Bishop Michael Curry, prophetic leader and best-selling author on the way of God and the way of life: "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!"

#70 With Bishop Mariann Budde of the National Cathedral on returning to Minneapolis this January: “There was a sense of resolve, horror, exhaustion, fear and defiance. I've never been part of anything like it.”

#69: On the 10th anniversary of the death of my friend and mentor Daniel Berrigan: May 9, 1921-April 30, 2016: "War has become the ultimate antiChrist."