A Peaceable Hope

“The notorious disjunction between the peaceable Jesus who commands love of enemy and the returning Jesus who brings punitive vengeance is here met head-on. Neville is historically honest, hermeneutically sophisticated, and personally candid. This is New Testament theology at its best and most helpful.”
—Dale C. Allison Jr., Errett M. Grable Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary

“In this lucid and resolutely honest discussion, David Neville examines the discrepancy that exists between Jesus’s advocacy of nonretaliation and peacemaking in the gospel tradition and portrayals of eschatological judgment steeped in retributive violence. Neville navigates his way through this tricky territory with skill and sensitivity, respecting both the text’s significant diversity and its enduring authority. Troubling texts remain troubling, but Neville’s ‘hermeneutic of shalom’ provides an immensely useful way of acknowledging the problem without losing sight of the peaceable hope vouchsafed in God’s nonviolent self-disclosure in Jesus Christ and undergirding the canonical trajectory as a whole.”
—Christopher Marshall, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

“Neville’s superb treatment of the disjunction between Jesus as inaugurator of peace and the imagery of judgment with violent retribution is thorough and judicious. Accepting eschatological judgment, he contends this does not negate God’s Covenant of Peace as a definitive moral imperative for understanding Jesus’s words and deeds in the Synoptic Gospels. John’s apocalyptic eschatology (much realized) does not envision violent retribution; Jesus and the Paraclete promise peace amid persecution. Neville’s careful research—laudably interacting in depth with current scholarship and interpretive discernment—contributes richly to a foremost moral issue in New Testament interpretation and Christian praxis. Infused and guided by peace and eschatological hope, this book is not to be missed!”
—Willard Swartley, professor emeritus of New Testament, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary

“With this latest book in the venerable Studies of Peace in Scripture series Neville joins the volatile and timely conversation regarding the presence of violence in the New Testament. The heart of Neville’s study is the proposal that Jesus’s nonviolent mission and message of peace serve as means to assess the faithfulness of the New Testament witnesses to that mission, in particular the evangelists and John of Patmos. All readers, even those restless with how much daylight Neville finds between a nonviolent Jesus and sometimes vengeful eschatologies of his New Testament witnesses, will benefit greatly from this rich storehouse of erudition, honest engagement with difficult biblical texts, theological and moral vision, and the transparent presentation of arguments and conclusions emerging from Neville’s ‘hermeneutics of shalom.’”
—Thomas R. Yoder Neufeld, professor New Testament, Conrad Grebel University College, University of Waterloo; author of Killing Enmity: Violence and the New Testament

“Can there be divine judgment without divine vengeance and violence? Does NT eschatology undermine NT ethics? David Neville’s detailed exegetical and hermeneutical study of the Gospels, Acts, and Revelation makes a valuable contribution to these important questions. It is a manifesto for, and a demonstration of, a hermeneutic of peace.”
—Michael J. Gorman, Raymond E. Brown Professor of Biblical Studies and Theology, St. Mary’s Seminary & University, Baltimore

“For those concerned about the apparent conflict between Jesus’s vision of peace and God’s retributive judgment, Neville provides a very thorough, carefully nuanced examination of the relevant texts in the four Gospels, Acts, and Revelation, and develops thoughtful hermeneutical guidelines from this process.”
—Thomas Finger, author of A Contemporary Anabaptist Theology