The Complex Image of a God Fighting for his People

A Cognitive-Linguistic and Theological-Ethical Study of the War Narratives in the book of Joshua

My research aims at filling this lacuna by offering in the first part of my research a Cognitive-Linguistic study of Joshua 6, 8 and 10-11 whereby all the concepts used in the description of war and the role YHWH plays therein will be analyzed from a semasiological (studying the different meanings of one concept in language) and an onomasiological perspective (studying the different names a language uses for one concept). On the basis of this analysis, I shall develop, in a second part of my research, a critical-ethical reflection on these texts as the reception history of the conquest stories is highly problematic. With this double movement I intend to offer important hermeneutical keys to interpret these texts in an exegetically and ethically relevant manner.