The Bible as a Book of Conflict. How to learn to fight gracefully.

The Bible is full of conflict, beginning with Kain murdering his brother Abel. From Janneke Stegeman’s perspective, different and often competing groups express their identity in these narratives. She discusses the importance of recognising conflict as one of the main forces behind religious tradition. She shed light on the role of the Bible in centuries of European identity politics, which culminates in the enthusiasm of Dutch politicians today when they refer to the ‘jewish-christian roots’ of our society. Nevertheless, since conflict is an aspect of human interaction everywhere and all the time, she argues it is important to learn to fight gracefully.

Bio – Janneke Stegeman (Woudenberg, 1980) is a biblical scholar and theologian. She earned her PhD (2014) with a study on the role of conflict in the development of religious tradition. Stegeman is interested in the interaction between religion and conflict and indecent theology. She regularly gives lectures, preaches and writes articles on these topics. She co-founded TITS, (The Indecent Theology Society) and GeNOT (Genootschap voor Onbetamelijke Theologie). Her latest publication is Alles Moet Anders! Bevrijdingstheologie voor Witte Nederlanders (2017), an essay about her thoughts on liberation theology, focused on people that share her context: white Dutch citizens with a Christian background.