scholarly journals Reading Stephen’s Speech as a Counter-Cultural Discourse on Migration and Dislocation

Open Theology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 289-316
Author(s):  
Albert L. A. Hogeterp
Keyword(s):  
Identity Politics ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Cultural Discourse ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Story Telling ◽  
Biblical Story ◽  
Christian Mission ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Migration Narratives ◽  
Cultural Stereotyping

Abstract The speech of Stephen in Acts 7:2–53 contains a wealth of references to biblical migration narratives, but their significance for understanding the message of Luke–Acts has been understudied. This is partly due to a recurrent focus on either accusations against Stephen (Acts 6:8–15) or the polemical conclusion of the speech (Acts 7:47–50.51–53). It also partly relates to a teleological interest in early Christian mission narrative. This article reads Stephen’s speech as a counter-cultural discourse on migration and dislocation. It provides a close reading of its biblical story-telling in conjunction with its polemical upshot, and further compares Lucan narrative choices with early Jewish and Jewish Hellenistic literary cycles about patriarchal and Mosaic discourse. It applies a critical lens to the use of ancient narratives of migration and dislocation in discussions about identity, ethnicity, and “othering;” this is of further importance for contemporary identity politics around migration. Through comparing the speech with intra-Jewish dimensions and Graeco-Roman contexts, Stephen emerges as a counter-cultural speaker whose discourse appeals to human–divine intersectionality, specifically regarding the cause of justice for the ill-treated stranger; at the same time, it avoids cultural stereotyping through categories of Hebrews vs Hellenists, Jews vs Christians, Graeco-Roman elite standards vs supposedly “non-European” profiles.

Purity, Community, and Ritual in Early Christian Literature

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moshe Blidstein
Keyword(s):  
Third Century ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Christian Identity ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
Christian Culture ◽  
Christian Literature ◽  
Christian Practices ◽  
Dietary Laws ◽  
New Religion

This book examines the meanings of purification practices and purity concepts in early Christian culture, as articulated and formed by Greek Christian authors of the first three centuries, from Paul to Origen. Concepts of purity and defilement were pivotal for understanding human nature, sin, history, and ritual in early Christianity. In parallel, major Christian practices, such as baptism, abstinence from food or sexual activity, were all understood, felt, and shaped as instances of purification. Two broad motivations, at some tension with each other, formed the basis of Christian purity discourse. The first was substantive: the creation and maintenance of anthropologies and ritual theories coherent with the theological principles of the new religion. The second was polemic: construction of Christian identity by laying claim to true purity while marking purity practices and beliefs of others (Jews, pagans, or “heretics”) as false. The book traces the interplay of these factors through a close reading of second- and third-century Christian Greek authors discussing dietary laws, death defilement, sexuality, and baptism, on the background of Greco-Roman and Jewish purity discourses. There are three central arguments. First, purity and defilement were central concepts for understanding Christian cultures of the second and third centuries. Second, Christianities developed their own conceptions and practices of purity and purification, distinct from those of contemporary and earlier Jewish and pagan cultures, though decisively influenced by them. Third, concepts and practices of purity and defilement were shifting and contentious, an arena for boundary-marking between Christians and others and between different Christian groups.

Contesting Aristotle: Science, Theology and the Resurrection of the Body in Methodius of Olympus’ De Resurrectione and the Dialogue of Adamantius

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Dawn LaValle Norman
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Scientific Reasoning ◽  
The Body ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Scientific Authority ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Parallel Text ◽  
Entire Text

Abstract The contest over the resurrection of the body used the scientific authority of Aristotle as ammunition on both sides. Past scholars have read Methodius of Olympus as displaying an anti-Aristotelian bias. In contrast, through close reading of the entire text with attention to characterization and development of argument, I prove that Methodius of Olympus’ dialogue the De Resurrectione utilizes Aristotelian biology as a morally neutral tool. To put this into higher relief, I compare Methodius’ dialogue with the anonymous Dialogue of Adamantius, a text directly dependent upon the Methodius’ De Resurrectione, but which rejects arguments based on scientific reasoning. Reading Methodius’ De Resurrectione with greater attention to the whole and putting it in the context of its nearest parallel text retells the traditional story of early Christian resistance to Aristotle. Methodius of Olympus’ characters, although they view scientific knowledge as subordinate to philosophy, see it as neutral in and of itself.

‘Manuelzinho’, Brazil and Identity Politics

2019 ◽  
pp. 33-47
Author(s):  
Vidyan Ravinthiran
Keyword(s):  
Identity Politics ◽  
Moral Judgement ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Political Consciousness ◽  
Dramatic Monologue ◽  
Modern Identity

Analysing ‘Manuelzinho’ with an eye and an ear for its ambiguous or ironic word-choices, rhythms, and line-endings, this chapter situate its political consciousness as inextricably that of a dramatic monologue—a form in which, as Robert Langbaum tells us, there is always a tension between ‘sympathy’ and ‘moral judgement’. Events in contemporary Brazil have a previously unexamined relevance: the ‘tapping’ of telephone connections, endemic in the favelas; peasant uprisings elsewhere in the country. A historical close reading discovers a poem ultimately critical of injustice, rather than collusive with oppression; a text which challenges, perhaps, modern identity politics.

An Angelic Jesus?

2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-43
Author(s):  
Lejla Demiri
Keyword(s):  
Close Reading ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Textual Traditions

SummaryThis paper offers a close reading of the Muslim theologian Najm al-Dīn al-Ṭūfī’s (d. 716/1316) five treatises in which he describes Jesus in angelic terms, asserting that in his nature Jesus was an angel, but in form a human being. It also provides a thorough analysis of Ṭūfī’s scriptural arguments for the notion of an angelic Jesus. The question of his possible sources is further addressed. Are there any Christian writings that describe Jesus in angelic terms? If so, how do they relate to Ṭūfī’s ‘angel-natured Jesus’? Pointing out a number of early Christian textual traditions that clearly bear marks of the notion of an angelic Jesus, the paper then sheds light upon those sources that may have led to a milieu that ultimately influenced Ṭūfī’s opinion. Ṭūfī’s reference to an angelic Jesus and his willingness to incorporate it into his own Christology suggest that at least some features of angel Christology must have been still ‘in the air’ in the early 14th century Egyptian context.

Tense, Mood, and Aspect

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Simon
Keyword(s):  
Jim Crow ◽  
Temporal Structure ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Musical Analysis ◽  
Subject Positions ◽  
The Past ◽  
Migration Narratives ◽  
And Migration

The verbal characteristics of tense, mood, and aspect are used in this chapter to examine the structuring of narratives in the blues. Arguing that the blues articulate an unconventional story arc marked by a timeline that both reaches back retrospectively into the past and gestures toward a future, Simon argues that the temporal structure approximates Jim Crow and migration narratives in its open-endedness. The discussion of tense, mood, and aspect reveals an unstable, resonant, and oscillating system of temporalities and subject positions. Beginning with explorations of Memphis Minnie’s “In My Girlish Days” and Freddie King’s “Someday, After Awhile,” the chapter culminates in a close reading of Freddie King’s guitar solo in “Have You Ever Loved a Woman.” Through musical analysis, musical correlates to tense, mood, and aspect demonstrate the musical narrative’s reliance on structures similar to those that underpin the lyric content.

Scripture and Asceticism

2019 ◽  
pp. 491-509
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. Clark
Keyword(s):  
Old Testament ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The Difference

This chapter surveys some interpretative techniques employed by early Christian writers to encourage ascetic renunciation, especially renunciation of marriage and reproduction. These authors, gearing their messages to different audiences, sought to mine passages from both the Old Testament and the New to advance their cause. By use of different exegetical techniques (e.g. intertextual exegesis; appeal to ‘the difference in times’; ‘close reading’), they wrested ascetic meaning from often-recalcitrant scriptural passages. The chapter concludes with some examples of ascetic exegesis from Syrian authors.

Tender Fictions, Exemplary Choices

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 124-148
Author(s):  
Adrijana Vidić
Keyword(s):  
Short Story ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Story Telling ◽  
Short Story Collection ◽  
Story Collection

This paper deals with the reconceptualization of martyrdom in Želimir Periš’ short story collection Martyrs (2013). A close reading demonstrates a link between these texts and some hagiographic features, such as celibacy, asceticism, and visions. Special attention is given to the aspect of exemplarity, which is emphasized as a result of diverse repetitions. Also, the implications of the cyclical structure of this collection are examined. In conclusion, the analysis of the role of the story and story-telling indicates choice to be the shared motivation of these texts and the essence of martyrdom as it appears here.

scholarly journals Menuju Misi Kristen yang Mengedepankan Dialog Antariman

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yohanes Krismantyo Susanta
Keyword(s):  
Colonial Period ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Christian Mission ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Library Research ◽  
Doctrine Of The Trinity ◽  
Unity In Diversity ◽  
The Trinity

This paper uses library research to several kinds of literature that address issues of Christian mission. This paper shows that the early Christian mission came together and was used as a tool in the colonial era to conquer the Indonesian people. Christian mission in the colonial period was understood narrowly to make someone become a Christian. The mission paradigm affects the encounter between Christianity and other religions in Indonesia, especially Islam. Therefore, it is necessary to reconstruct the understanding of Christian mission amid diversity in the context of Negara Kesatuan Republik Indonesia. Christian mission centred on the doctrine of the Trinity is understood as a joint dialogue to solve social, humanitarian problems. The mission is not a barrier to dialogue, but rather an affirmation of the importance of unity in diversity.

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