Reading / hearing Romans 13
What to make of a colonially inflected text such as Rom 13:1-7, used to justify dictatorial and undemocratic regimes, particularly in African countries redolent of lingering neo-colonialism and neo-imperialism, is the challenge of this article. Using insights from social-scientific criticism and pos...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
NTWSA
2012
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| In: |
Neotestamentica
Year: 2012, Volume: 46, Issue: 1, Pages: 105-138 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | What to make of a colonially inflected text such as Rom 13:1-7, used to justify dictatorial and undemocratic regimes, particularly in African countries redolent of lingering neo-colonialism and neo-imperialism, is the challenge of this article. Using insights from social-scientific criticism and postcolonial theory, particularly the Bhabhan concept of hybridity, this article re-visits this over-exegeted Pauline passage. It shows that reading/hearing Rom 13:1-7 under an African tree, through the lens of Lectio Postcolonica Contexta Africana reveals a different hermeneutical outcome that eschews the customary binarism of either subordination or resistance. Paul is presented here as an ethnic hybrid who both affiliates with and challenges the Imperium Romanum at the same time. Such a reading / hearing of the text enables the African reader / hearer of the Bible to both praise and challenge in due measure even repressive, dictatorial and undemocratic regimes without compromising their Christian vocation as people not "conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of [their] minds [μη σνσχηματίςεσθε τω αίωνι τοντω αλλα μεταμορφονσθε τη ανακαινωσει τον νοός]" (Rom 12:2). |
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| ISSN: | 2518-4628 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Neotestamentica
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.10520/EJC121514 |