Reading Joshua as Christian Scripture

Few books of the Bible trouble modern readers as much as Joshua, with its conquest narrative and its historical and ethical difficulties. Douglas Earl argues that the problem lies partly in how we read it: treated as a historical account of conquest, Joshua is misconstrued. Drawing on anthropological approaches to myth and a close literary reading of the text, he shows how the book worked in ancient Israel to reshape the norms of community identity found in Deuteronomy, forming a new cultural memory.

Earl then revisits the old idea of Scripture's spiritual sense through a rich account of symbol and Paul Ricoeur's narrative hermeneutics. The reading that emerges echoes premodern interpreters while pressing hard on present-day ideas of identity and faithfulness. For theologians, students and thoughtful Christians who have wrestled with Joshua and want a serious, scholarly way forward.