In the Shadow of Empire: Reclaiming the Bible as a History of Faithful Resistance
About: This article is published in Journal of Reformed Theology.The article was published on 2011-01-01. It has received 26 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Empire & Church history.
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Dissertation•
01 Jun 2017
TL;DR: The authors argue that one of the ways Luke redefines the idea of the world is by exploring the meaning of oikoumene, "the inhabited world" and that these meanings reflected the various political, cultural, and religious conceptions of the oikmene in his writings.
Abstract: The present study argues that one of the ways Luke redefines the idea of the world
is by exploring the meaning of oikoumene, “the inhabited world” This Greek term was a
representative concept to signify the Mediterranean World Subsequently the term
oikoumene was embraced by other cultures which needed a concept to portray the world,
such as that of the Romans and the Jews Each culture adopted the term but distinctively
adapted it within its own context As a result, the term included various meanings—political,
cultural, and religious—by the first century CE These contextual interpretations reflect the
fact that each culture established its own subjective worldview, namely a self-centred way
of thinking Subsequently, within the context of various worldviews, it was necessary for
the biblical authors to clarify how audiences would perceive the oikoumene they inhabited
Luke employs the term oikoumene eight times in his two-volume book His usages of the
term reflect the various political, cultural, and religious conceptions of the oikoumene in his
time For Luke, the oikoumene is the world ruled by Roman hegemony in terms of politics
and the pagan cult in terms of religion, but the oikoumene should be restored by Jesus and
then his followers within their eschatological hope It is remarkable that these views
converge within the Acts narrative, thereby drawing an image of the inhabited world Luke
superimposes two contrasting worlds in Acts Firstly, Luke exploits the prominent discourse
of the Greeks about the inhabited world but within this he resorts to the Jewish reliance on
an ancestral theme to describe the inhabited world, thereby providing a schematic picture of
that inhabited world created by God in terms of geographic features and ethnic origin
Furthermore, Luke attempts to depict the world before his eyes which is, absolutely, the
Roman oikoumene Luke implies that the world portrayed in Acts 2 is established according
to the Roman oikoumene, thereby creating a newly constructed oikoumene Acts is a
narrative in which the Roman oikoumene is retrieved into the world that Luke envisages in
Acts 2 For Luke, the ideal oikoumene is the newly-restored world founded upon the Roman
world
54 citations
01 Jan 2012
TL;DR: In this paper, an ideological critique of the New Black Church model of ministry is presented, with T.D. Jakes and Woman Thou Art Loosed (WTAL) as a case study.
Abstract: OF DISSERATION THE WAL-MARTIZAION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN RELIGION T.D. JAKES AND WOMAN THOU ART LOOSED BY PAULA L. MCGEE CLAREMONT GRADUATE UNIVERSITY 2012 This dissertation is an ideological critique of the New Black Church model of ministry, with T.D. Jakes and Woman Thou Art Loosed (WTAL) as a case study. T.D. Jakes is an African American televangelist who pastors The Potter’s House, a supermegachurch in Dallas, Texas. He is the quintessential example of a New Black Church pastor—a religious entrepreneur with several successful faith brands. WTAL is by far his most successful brand. Unashamed of his capitalist success, with an empire estimated to be worth $100 million dollars, Jakes says that it is occupational discrimination for him not to reap the benefits of the American dream. This dissertation identifies what has happened to the brand and Jakes’s ministry as “the Wal-Martization of African American Religion.” As a theoretical concept, Wal-Martization speaks to both the ideology and process that explains the generational differences between the New Black Church and the Black Church. It also is indicative of the branding and storytelling at every level of representation of the New Black
31 citations
Journal Article•
TL;DR: The authors argued that empire is primarily of conceptual nature and a negotiated notion, a constantly constructed entity by both the powerful and the subjugated, to which the concomitant responses of subversion and attraction to empire attest.
Abstract: Considering the overt or sublime connections biblical scholars increasingly indicate between biblical texts and empires, this contribution engages the need for the theorisation of empire beyond material depiction. It is suggested that empire is primarily of conceptual nature and a negotiated notion, a constantly constructed entity by both the powerful and the subjugated, to which the concomitant responses of subversion and attraction to empire attest. The discussion is primarily related to the first-century CE context, arguing also that postcolonial analysis provides a useful approach to deal with (at least, some of) the complexities of such research.
25 citations
TL;DR: Recent studies of the letters of the New Testament have uncovered intentional words, phrases, ideology and imagery that carry the weight of anti-imperial rhetoric as discussed by the authors, which is the basis for our work.
Abstract: Recent studies of the letters of the New Testament have uncovered intentional words, phrases, ideology and imagery that carry the weight of anti-imperial rhetoric. The second of three articles, thi...
22 citations
TL;DR: In the first century of the Common Era, if the powerful Roman Emperor was considered a god, what did that mean for the earliest Christians who committed loyalty to ‘another’ God? as mentioned in this paper investigates the use of anti-imperial rhetoric in the New Testament Gospels and the book of Acts.
Abstract: The first of a series of three articles, this essay introduces current scholarship concerned with the use of anti-imperial rhetoric in the New Testament Gospels and the book of Acts. In the first century of the Common Era, if the powerful Roman Emperor was considered a god, what did that mean for the earliest Christians who committed loyalty to ‘another’ God? Was it necessary for the NT authors to employ subversive language, words and symbols, to conceal their true meanings from the imperial authorities in their communications to the first Christian communities? The answers to such key questions can give us a clearer picture of the culture, society and setting in which the NT was written. The purpose of this complex study is to observe how current biblical scholarship views anti-imperial rhetoric and anti-emperor implications found in the NT, assuming such rhetoric exists at all. This initial article reviews recent scholarship with respect to the background of the Roman Empire, current interpretive method...
17 citations