What is the purpose of Paul's letter to the Romans? Esler provides an illuminating analysis of this epistle, employing social-scientific methods along with epigraphy and archaeology. His conclusion is that the apostle Paul was attempting to facilitate the resolution of intergroup conflict among the Christ-followers of Rome, especially between Judeans and non-Judeans, and to establish a new identity for them by developing a form of group categorization that subsumes the various groups into a new entity.
This book offers a fresh approach to Paul's gospel. Applying linguistic discourse analysis to Romans 1:16-8:39, it helps the reader to gain a comprehensive understanding of the argumentative structure and contents of the gospel of Paul. As well as revealing the two underlying descriptive frameworks that Paul uses to explain his gospel about God's salvation - the interactive framework between God and humans, and the 'two-realm' framework - this book demonstrates that Paul's gospel consists of one 'peak point' that shows the central role of Jesus, and two 'sub-peaks' elucidating salvation.
Aaron Ricker locates the purpose of Romans in its function as a tool of community identity definition. Ricker employs a comparative analysis of the ways in which community identity definition is performed in first-century association culture, including several ancient network letters comparable to Romans. Ricker's examination of the community advice found in Rom 12-15 reveals in this new context an ancient example of the ways in which an inscribed addressee community can be invited in a letter to see and comport itself as a “proper” association network community. The ideal community addressed in the letter to the Romans is defined as properly unified and orderly, as well accommodating to – and clearly distinct from – cultures “outside.” Finally, it is defined as linked to a proper network with recognised leadership (i.e., the inscribed Paul of the letter and his network). Paul's letter to the Romans is in many ways a baffling and extraordinary document. In terms of its community-defining functions and strategies, however, Ricker shows its purpose to be perfectly clear and understandable.
Witherington gleans fresh insights from reading the text of Paul's epistle in light of early Jewish theology, the historical situation of Rome in the middle of first century A.D., and Paul's own rhetorical concerns.
This book focuses on day-to-day interactions between Romans and Italians interacted, and the consequences of such interactions. Drawing on new archaeological evidence, literary and epigraphic material, it presents the current state of research on integration and identity formation in the Republic.
An interaction between biblical studies and communication studies that demonstrates how understanding situations of conflict in the Bible can help develop skills in dealing with conflict today. Each of eleven chapters presents a biblical story (from Adam and Eve through the letters of Paul) that examines some aspect of conflict intrapersonal, interpersonal, or between humans and God. Each chapter takes up a particular theme the nature of conflict, the role of identity, the need for forgiveness, the use of power, the potential of mediation, the skills of negotiation, the possibility of reconciliation with the goal of helping students learn how to be in right relationship with one another and with God. Each chapter includes discussion questions, suggested readings, and sidebars to form an attractive text for undergraduates and general readers. Accessible language and tools to engage students are used throughout.
In this work Susann Liubinskas provides a coherent reading of Paul’s letter to the Romans in light of ancient ethnography. Paul, like his contemporaries, harnesses the apologetic power of this genre in order to fortify the members of the Roman house churches to maintain their distinctiveness by arguing for the historical legitimacy of the Christ movement’s laws, customs, and way of life. When the law-faith dichotomy is considered within the larger context of Paul’s ethnic discourse, its primary function as the means by which Paul draws lines of continuity and discontinuity between the Christ-movement and its venerable Jewish roots comes to light. Rather than viewing Paul as dealing with two different religions, we see Paul working to position believing Jews and Gentiles in relationship to Israel’s history with God, particularly as its finds its climax in Jesus Christ. Thus, Paul utilizes the law-faith dichotomy, not to describe two paths of salvation, but to redefine the people of God, in the new age, as ethnically inclusive.
This volume approaches three key concepts in Roman history -- gender, memory and identity -- and demonstrates the significance of their interaction in all social levels and during all periods of Imperial Rome. When societies, as well as individuals, form their identities, remembrance and references to the past play a significant role. The aim of Gender, Memory, and Identity in the Roman World is to cast light on the constructing and the maintaining of both public and private identities in the Roman Empire through memory, and to highlight, in particular, the role of gender in that process. While approaching this subject, the contributors to this volume scrutinise both the literature and material sources, pointing out how widespread the close relationship between gender, memory and identity was. A major aim of Gender, Memory, and Identity in the Roman World as a whole is to point out the significance of the interaction between these three concepts in both the upper and lower levels of Roman society, and how it remained an important question through the period from Augustus right into Late Antiquity.
Collective identity creates a sense of "us-ness" in people. It may be fleeting and situational or long-lasting and deeply ingrained. Competition, shared belief, tragedy, or a myriad of other factors may contribute to the formation of such group identity. Even people detached from one another by space, anonymity, or time, may find themselves in a context in which individual self-concept is replaced by a collective one. How is collective identity, particularly the long-lasting kind, created and maintained? Many literary and biblical studies have demonstrated that shared stories often lie at the heart of it. This book examines the most repeated story of the Hebrew Bible--the exodus story--to see how it may have functioned to construct and reinforce an enduring collective identity in ancient Israel. A tool based on the principles of the social identity approach is created and used to expose identity construction at a rhetorical level. The author shows that exodus stories are characterized by recognizable language and narrative structures that invite ongoing collective identification.
Hyun Ho Park employs social identity to create the first thorough analysis via such methodology of Acts 21:17-23:35, which contains one of the fiercest intergroup conflicts in Acts. Park's assessment allows his readers to rethink, reevaluate, and reimagine Jewish-Christian relations; teaches them how to respond to the vicious cycle of slander, labeling, and violence permeating contemporary public and private spheres; and presents a new hermeneutical cycle and describes how readers may apply it to their own sociopolitical contexts. After surveying previous studies of the text, Park first analyses Paul's welcome, questioning, and arrest, and how slandering and labeling make Paul an outsider. Park then describes how, through defending his Jewish identity and the Way, Paul nuances his public image and re-categorizes himself and the Way as part of the people of God. When Paul identifies himself as a Roman and later a Pharisee, Park examines Luke's ambivalent attitude toward Rome and the Pharisees, and assesses how Paul escapes dangerous situations by claiming different social identities at different times. Finally, he discloses the vicious cycle of slander, labeling, and violence not only against the Way but also against the Jews and challenges the discursive process of identity construction through intergroup conflict with an out-group, especially the proximate “Other.” Furthermore, he demonstrates how the relevance of such scholarship is not limited to Lukan studies or even biblical studies in general; the frequent use of slander, labeling, and violence in the politics of the United States and other polarized countries around the globe demands new ways of looking at intergroup relations, and Park's argument meets the needs of those seeking a new perspective on contemporary political discord.
