Showing papers in "Horizons in Biblical Theology in 2020"

Reading Rahab with Larsen: towards a New Direction in African American Biblical Hermeneutics

Abstract: This article explores what it might look like to read the biblical story of Rahab alongside literature from the African American literary canon. Specifically, the article examines the biblical account of Rahab found in Joshua 2 through the lens of identity and argues that, like characters in Harlem Renaissance author Nella Larsen’s novels Quicksand and Passing, Rahab is passing in Joshua 2. The characters Helga Crane from the novel Quicksand and Clare Kendry from the novel Passing serve as exemplars for passing (the act of presenting as of a different racial group than one’s own), and the markers of passing are mapped on to Rahab. This article is a womanist work, as it seeks to center the experiences of Black women.

Mariological Developments in the New Testament

Abstract: The Christian views on the significance of Mary have developed over a long time. This article studies what Mariological developments can be detected in the canonical New Testament and what they mig ...

Paul’s Map and Territory: Rethinking the Work of the Apostle in Light of Ancient Cartography

Abstract: Paul had a clear understanding of how his calling and his work mapped onto geography. In contexts where he felt that others were encroaching on his territory, as in Galatians and 2 Corinthians, Paul could be very angry and defensive. Likewise, when Paul was writing to people in territories that he did not consider part of his purview, such as in Romans, he was deferential and submissive. In all three cases—in Galatians and 2 Corinthians when Paul was being defensive about his territory, and in Romans when he was being deferential—Paul used a particular word, κλίµα, to designate geography—a word he never used in any other context. This article puts this observation in conversation with ancient mapping, which relied on “process descriptions” of space and place rather than “state descriptions.” That is, ancient cartography privileged the process of movement or travel, and in contrast to most modern mapping, ancient maps didn’t usually make use of any external system of reference. One particular map, the Peutinger Map, helps illustrate this phenomenon. Understanding how ancient maps organized space, we can begin to understand Paul’s notions of territory and the way they determined which places he felt compelled to visit. By knowing something about Paul’s maps and geographies, we can make sense of his language in Romans 15, where territory played a pivotal role in his self-understanding as an apostle and in his trajectory across the Roman world, “from Jerusalem and as far around as Illyricum,” but also onward to Spain and to the end of the world.

Goldingay on God: Addressing the Distinction between Biblical and Dogmatic Theology

Abstract: In modern descriptions of biblical theology, attempts to distinguish it from dogmatic or systematic theology have often focused on the latter’s use of extrabiblical or “philosophical” concepts and categories in expounding Christian doctrine. In his recent volume entitled Biblical Theology: The God of the Christian Scriptures, John Goldingay initially affirms this method of distinguishing between the disciplines, but his subsequent treatment of the Bible’s teaching about God affords an excellent opportunity to discuss whether this approach to the distinction is in fact practicable. Through an appreciative engagement of Goldingay’s work, this essay will discuss (1) the need for an alternative way of distinguishing biblical theology from dogmatic theology and (2) how Goldingay’s treatment of scriptural teaching on God in particular might help to address perceived tensions between the Bible’s portrayal of God and classical accounts of God that are frequently viewed with suspicion in modern biblical scholarship.

Atonement and Martyrdom in the Gospel of John

Abstract: Does the Gospel of John portray Jesus’ death as an atoning sacrifice? This paper offers a new approach to the revelation vs. sacrifice impasse in scholarship, arguing that Jesus’ atoning death in John should be understood with reference to the non-cultic atoning deaths of the Jewish martyrdom traditions. After critically engaging scholarship, I contextualize John within post-biblical debates regarding sacrificial martyrdom, focusing on the competing reconfigurations of non-cultic atonement in the Maccabean literature. I subsequently show how Jesus’ atoning martyrdom reveals his anti-violent way of the cross as the true martyrdom and atoning sacrifice accepted by God, thereby resolving key tensions within Johannine scholarship. I then demonstrate how this vision of atonement addresses John’s understanding of sin as ignorance and addresses an audience itself facing threats of martyrdom (John 16:2). I conclude with some reflections on how John’s vision of atonement critically differs from later theological theories, particularly penal substitution.