God's Monsters: Vengeful Spirits, Deadly Angels, Hybrid Creatures, and Divine Hitmen of the Bible

What do the angels of death and other monstrous beings sent by God truly tell us about the Divine?

The Bible is full of giants tromp through the land of milk and honey; Leviathan swims through the wine-dark sea. What we often believe is that God reliably vanquishes the monsters and protects us from harm. But when we look closer, we find that most of these monsters aren't God's opponents--they are God's entourage. These shape-shifters, boundary crossers, and hybrid creatures often act with stunning brutality, all in God's employ. In fact, every type of peculiar being in God's company threatens, injures, tortures, or kills on behalf of the divine will. And each type of monster reflects a facet of God's own monstrosity.

Confronting God's monsters--and the God-monster--may be uncomfortable, but the Bible is richer for their presence. The biblical writers' unflinching depictions of the monstrous God create space for our own grief, anger, dissatisfaction, and protest. God's Monsters invites us to wrestle honestly and rigorously with the monstrosity of the biblical God, perhaps to discover that if God can be held accountable, so too can those in God's entourage.