Anthony W. Bartlett’s Seven Stories: How to Study and Teach the Nonviolent Bible (third edition; n.p.: Hopetime Press, 2026) offers a bold reinterpretation of Jewish and Christian Scripture, bringing together historical-critical scholarship, literary sensitivity, and the anthropological insights of French semiotician René Girard. Bartlett claims that the Bible is a progressive revelation that exposes the deep structures of human violence while simultaneously unveiling God as fundamentally nonviolent. This has profound implications for how Christians understand God, Scripture, the atonement of Christ, and participation in the world.
Bartlett argues that images of God shaped by violence must be relinquished if the “true” biblical message is to be properly understood. This entails what he calls a kind of “necessary Christian atheism,” a rejection of false, violent conceptions of God in order to rediscover the God of love revealed most fully in the person of Jesus Christ. For Bartlett, the Bible is not a static text but a dynamic, multivocal narrative that leads humanity toward a new way of being in the world.
The methodological framework of Seven Stories rests on three pillars. First, the historical-critical method situates biblical texts within their historical and cultural contexts, recognising their development over time. Second, literary criticism attends to genre, symbolism, and narrative form, allowing for a more nuanced reading than strict literalism permits. Third, and most distinctively, Bartlett employs Girardian anthropology, which interprets human culture as shaped by mimetic desire and the scapegoating of victims. This triadic method enables Bartlett to read Scripture as both a witness to the violence embedded in human societies and a critique of such violence and the societies it produces.
A central focus of the book is the reinterpretation of the Christian doctrine of atonement. Bartlett traces the historical development of atonement theology from early “ransom” theories, through Anselm’s satisfaction model, to the Protestant doctrine of penal substitution, arguing that each reflects its historical and cultural context and relies on assumptions about purity, violence, exchange, and retribution. These models, he contends, have projected violence onto God, depicting divine justice as requiring punishment or compensation.
In contrast, Seven Stories proposes a distinctive nonviolent understanding of atonement. For Bartlett, the death of Jesus is not a transaction that satisfies divine wrath but a revelatory event that exposes human violence and discloses God’s non-retaliatory love. Jesus becomes the victim of human scapegoating, and in doing so reveals both the mechanism of violence and the possibility of a radically different response freely grounded in forgiveness. Redemption is not about debt repayment but about liberation from systems of violence.
This theological interpretation of Scripture is organised through seven “story cycles,” each tracing a movement from an established pattern of meaning to a transformed alternative: from oppression to justice, violence to forgiveness, wrath to compassion, and so forth. Each cycle consists of three lessons, culminating in Jesus as the interpretive key who brings these trajectories to their fullest expression. The movements are described as “semiotic shifts,” transformations in the way in which humans generate meaning. Forgiveness, for example, is not merely a response to violence but eclipses it as the foundational logic of human experience.
Bartlett also offers a redefinition of scriptural authority. Rather than grounding authority in inerrancy or literal precision, he locates it in the “transformative trajectory” of the text. Scripture is authoritative when it participates in a process that leads toward love, peace, and the overcoming of violence. The Bible is best understood not as a fixed deposit of truth but as a living conversation, in which different voices engage, challenge, and reinterpret one another, ultimately converging in the life and teaching of Jesus.
Thus, Jesus functions as the culmination of the biblical narrative and its hermeneutical centre. His nonviolent life and teaching provide the lens through which all Scripture is to be read. In Girardian terms, Jesus reveals the innocence of the victim and breaks the cycle of scapegoating that underlies all human culture. The resurrection of Jesus affirms this revelation, inaugurating a new reality in which violence is no longer determinative. He breaks the power of mimetic sin.
The book, now in its third edition, is pedagogically structured, designed for individual and group study. Its lessons, discussion questions, and reflective exercises emphasise the communal and relational dimension of transformation. The goal is the formation of transformative communities shaped by the nonviolent love revealed in the story of Jesus.
Despite its strengths, Seven Stories raises several important concerns that, if addressed, could deepen and strengthen its argument.
First, Bartlett’s heavy reliance on Girardian anthropology may lead to a reductionist reading in which diverse biblical texts are interpreted primarily through the lens of violence and scapegoating. This risks flattening the essential richness and plurality of Scripture. Incorporating canonical, theological, and intertextual approaches alongside engagement with Jewish interpretive traditions would preserve the diversity of the biblical witness while still allowing Girard’s insights to illuminate patterns of violence.
Second, Bartlett’s approach risks allegations of supersessionism. His emphasis on a move from “violent” to “nonviolent” conceptions of God, culminating in Jesus, may unintentionally imply the moral inferiority of earlier biblical traditions, effectively marginalising the Hebrew Scriptures. Perhaps more emphasis could be placed on the presence of nonviolent trajectories within the Hebrew Scriptures, especially in prophetic and wisdom traditions, with Jesus presented as an authentic Jewish prophet, intensifying and unveiling these trajectories rather than replacing them.
Third, by rejecting violent atonement models, the book risks underemphasising divine justice. Critics will question how wrongdoing and oppression are to be addressed without some tangible form of judgment. Positing a declaration of forgiveness for moral wrongs seems somewhat insufficient. A more explicit account of restorative justice is required, demonstrating that divine justice is active and transformative, involving lived practices of truth-telling, accountability, and the healing of relationships.
Bartlett’s Seven Stories offers a powerful and imaginative re-reading of the Bible as a narrative of liberation from violence. Its central insight, that divine nonviolence is the key to understanding scripture, opens new possibilities for theology and practice. By addressing the concerns outlined above, Bartlett’s project could become an enduring contribution to contemporary Christian thought.
Rev Dr Rod Benson is General Secretary of the NSW Ecumenical Council and a minister of the Uniting Church in Australia serving at North Rocks Community Church in Sydney.
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