Genuine question: What is to be made of all the beastly stuff in the
Old Testament?
I don't see how you can have a Holy Book and say that half of it is wonderful and live your life by it, but the other half is ... well, er, what
is to be made of the beastly stuff in the OT?
A huge question ColinJ.
Back in the past, a bunch of Christian folk tried to reject the OT because of its contrast with the NT. They went so far as to suggest there were two Gods; angry ruthless wrathful smoting creator god and an ineffable loving merciful god revealed through Jesus. They were judged to be in serious error and we got the Apostles Creed and ultimately a definitive(ish) list of what writings were to be in the NT as a result.
The (Roman Catholic) Christian believes the OT and NT were written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The same person believes that Christianity is not simply a 'religion of the book' but rather a religion of the "Word" of God and that Word is an incarnate and living being. So we ask that Word, Christ, through the Holy Spirit, to open our minds to the meaning of the OT to us, today. We remember that some of it is a kind of history, some allegory, some poetry. Some of it is contradictory both in terms of its representation of how we should behave and in its presentation of facts. The OT contains a lot of different forms of literary expression. And the beastly parts, especially the genocidal tribe vs tribe pieces are only a very small fraction of the whole.
What's more a Christian you read the OT by the light of, and through the lens of, the New Testament. You know how the story in the OT ends. You interpret it by that same light and lens, and using things like biblical criticism, a knowledge of history, and you exercise your critical faculties and use your judgement, and are informed by the judgement and experience of the millions of other Christians who read it and studied it before you. You probably also read it under the guidance of some teaching authority be it a commentary you find helpful, your pastor or your teacher or your Pope or if you're an RC through Sacred Tradition. And you probably pray quite a lot about it. The stuff that makes sense, that you understand, in the context of the message of the NT, like say the 10 commandments, how to treat strangers, widows and orphans, you go off and try to put into practise. The stuff you don't understand, or that doesn't make sense through the lens of the NT, like smoting, dietary laws, et cetera, you don't. You put it to one side and either disregard it completely or come back to it later.
Does that help you or hinder you?