Hospitable Barbarians: Luke’s Ethnic Reasoning in Acts 28:1-10
In his important work The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race, Willie James Jennings argues for ‘the emergence of spaces of communion that announce the healing of the nations through the story of Israel bound up in Jesus’ as one necessary step towards facilitating a healed Christ...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
[2017]
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| In: |
The journal of theological studies
Year: 2017, Volume: 68, Issue: 1, Pages: 23-45 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Bible. Apostelgeschichte 28,1-10
/ Ethnic identity
/ Culture
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| IxTheo Classification: | CD Christianity and Culture HC New Testament NBE Anthropology |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | In his important work The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race, Willie James Jennings argues for ‘the emergence of spaces of communion that announce the healing of the nations through the story of Israel bound up in Jesus’ as one necessary step towards facilitating a healed Christian social imagination (p. 293). In this essay, I suggest that a reading of the book of Acts that attends to the narrative’s use of ethnic reasoning may help to recover a more compelling, embracing, and welcoming Christian social imagination. In particular, I examine the narrative’s use of ethnic reasoning in Acts 28:1-10 in order to show how Luke: (a) uses the designation ‘barbarian’ to raise the trope of the inhospitable, uncultured, and superstitious barbarian only in order to subvert the ethnic stereotype of the Malta islanders; (b) employs the social-cultural ritual of xenia (‘ritualized hospitality/friendship’) to show the creation of a fictive kinship relationship between those who worship Paul’s God (the God of Israel) and the Maltese; and (c) respects the cultural and geographical spaces of those peoples who are incorporated into this new people-group. These three components of Lukan ethnic reasoning are not isolated in Acts 28:1-10 alone but are, rather, confirmed through Luke’s narration of the ‘Christian’ movement’s expansion into non-Judaean territory. His reversal of ethnic stereotyping, use of the practice of ritualized friendship, and respect for the spaces of non-Jewish peoples suggests a broader Lukan strategy of ethnic reasoning that may hold some promise for healing a racially diseased Christian social imagination. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-4607 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The journal of theological studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jts/flx084 |