Scripture and Resistance (Theology in the Age of Empire)

Product Description
Resistance against unjust (wicked) cultures and imperial powers is at the heart of scripture. In many cases, the resistance is waged against external systems or the misappropriation of scriptural texts and traditions. In some cases, however, scripture resists oppressive cultures and powers that it also requires, certifies and protects. At other times, and in different settings, the minders of scripture speak against the abusive cultures and power systems that they inherited and whose benefits they milk.
Scripture and Resistance
contains reflections by authors from East, West, South, and North — on resistance and the Christian scriptures regarding a rainbow of concerns: the colonial legacies of the Bible; the people (especially native and indigenous people) who were subjugated and minoritized for the sake of the Bible; the courage for resistance among ordinary and normal people, and the opportunities that arise from their realities and struggles; the imperializing tendencies that lurk behind so-called traditional biblical scholarship; the strategies of and energies in post- and de-colonial criticisms; the Bible as a profitable product, and a site of struggle; and the multiple views or perspectives in the Bible about empire and resistance. In other words, the contributors, as a collective, affirm that the Bible contains (pun intended) resistance.
Review
This book invites the reader to embark on a journey of re-discovery, and also by implication points to interpretations yet undiscovered. ―
Modern Believing
In a collection of engaging and provocative essays, authors from diverse locations from the Global South explore the different ways of rereading and resisting the biblical text written under the umbrella of empire. -- Gale A. Yee, Nancy W. King Professor of Biblical Studies emerita, Episcopal Divinity School
Scripture and Resistance
continues the paradigm shift in the self-understanding of Biblical Studies by bringing to bear the theoretical perspectives of the margins on the hegemonic center. An international group of scholars explores the Bible as a site of struggle in these Neo-liberal times. I highly recommend this excellent work! -- Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Krister Stendahl Professor, Harvard Divinity School
In this provocative collection of essays, interpreters of diverse backgrounds and perspectives explore how the Bible has been used mainly to support— but sometimes to subvert— empire. Although voices of resistance were submerged in biblical texts, many of those texts portray a continuing struggle between people and imperial subjugation and exploitation. But Bible-bearing colonialists, with the collusion of established biblical studies, claimed authority to invade people's lives and to expropriate their lands. These essays call for a more honest acknowledgment of the Bible's (and biblical studies') historic and contemporary role in empire, and a more candid reading of the ambiguity, at best, of scriptural texts. -- Richard A. Horsley, Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and the Study of Religion, University of Massachusetts Boston (emeritus)
While the biblical scriptures have so often been marshalled to justify forms of dispossession, colonialism, and imperialism, these same scriptures continue to provide the inspiration for resistance to, if not the overthrow of, such oppression. The insights expertly gathered in
Scripture and Resistance
, from many parts of the globe that have experienced colonial dispossession in the not too distant past, indicate clearly that the Bible is not always a solace to the peddlers of empire. -- Roland Boer, Dalian University of Technology
Scripture and Resistance
is a very fine collection of essays, not least on account of the impressive international line-up of scholars associated with it. And with the consistent focus of the essays on this world (not the otherworldly) and on our fraught time (not text-constructed ancient-worl