The Hebrew Bible treats holy war, a vengeful God, the death penalty for adultery, and slavery. Drawing on his 2005 article in Currents in Biblical Research "The Morally Dubious Passages of the Hebrew Bible," Davies (theology and religious studies, Bangor U., UK) presents approaches that have been deployed by biblical scholars past and present in addressing aspects of the Hebrew Bible that are problematic for modern sensibilities. Chapters are devoted to evolutionary, cultural relativist, canonical, paradigmatic, and reader-response approaches. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)