Bible "Detox": Disarming the Conquest Narratives with Kate Common

April 01, 2025, 7:30pm Eastern US Time

Reckoning with and resisting the misuse of the Bible to promote and justify violence and oppression.

Perhaps the most glaring and destructive misuse of the biblical text has been the deployment of the narratives of conquest of ancient Israel to justify current colonial projects from Palestine to South Africa to Turtle Island. To tackle this problem, CLBSJ is honored to welcome Kate Common, practical theologian and interdisciplinary biblical researcher, and author of the recently published Undoing Conquest: Ancient Israel, the Bible, and the Future of Christianity (Orbis, 2024). Dr. Common will lead us on a deep dive into how contemporary research on the origins of the Hebrew people can help us challenge the dominant interpretation of the conquest narratives as justification for colonialist violence. Their work builds on archeological research on the Highlands Settlements north of Jerusalem, as well as on Norman Gottwald’s seminal work interpreting this research, Tribes of Yahweh: A Sociology of the Religion of Liberated Israel, 1250-1050 BCE.

PLEASE NOTE: Registration will be open until 7:00pm Eastern US Time on the day of the event.

Dr. Kate Common is an Assistant Professor of Public and Practical Theology at Methodist Theological School in Ohio. Coming out as queer in a fundamentalist Christian setting prompted a sense of call within Kate to create a more just Christianity. Kate’s research and teaching intersects feminist and queer theology, biblical studies, design thinking, and leadership. Her first book Undoing Conquest released in 2024 from Orbis Books, and she is currently working on her second book, Desiring Utopia: Queering Church, in conjunction with the AAR Academy Series and Oxford University Press. Kate holds a Ph.D. in theology from Boston University. Read Full Bio