In this book, George rejects articulating an essentialised identity of Paul in
Hellenistic or Jewish background as done through the Christian centuries by Paul's
interpreters. With his lucid, precise, and cogent argumentation, George articulates Paul's
postcolonial identity in non-essentialist, transcultural hybrid, and `impure' terms. He
argues that the apostle occupied a cultural-political interstitial space between the
Jewish, Hellenistic, and Roman cultures from where he spoke in `forked tongue' subverting,
simultaneously, all the three cultures.
Borrowing cultural-political tools of literary praxis from the literary critics like
Said, Spivak, and Bhabha, an exegetical study of Paul's letter to the Galatians is
undertaken in the context of the first century Galatia. It enables unraveling Paul's
strategic imagination in a postcolonial hybrid context. It is argued that his
self-representation and the community identity formation within the
christological-ekklesial space subvert competing power discourses emanating from the
colonial `centre' and `margins,' at the same time. For Paul, it is in Christ, the `Third
space,' that one is emancipated from all oppressive binaries.
This book is sure to interest every serious student of Paul and his theology who wishes
to hear multiple meanings of Paul's utterances in the then colonial context subverting
dominant power discourses, seeks relevance of his writings in the present
cultural-political world, and is interested in reading his writings from multiple
interpretive ventage points like Postcolonialism.
Contents
Foreword
Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Postcolonialism : A Critical Tool of Reading
1. Mapping Postcolonialism : Its Defenition and Conceptual Tools
2. Navigating Biblical Studies with the Postcolonial Compass
2. Jewish, Hellenistic, and Roman (Post)Colonial
Discursive World
1. Roman Imperialism : An Overview
2. Cross-Cultural Pollination in the Imperial World
3. The Colonial `Self' and the Colonized `Other' in Roman Antiquity : The Discursive
World
3. The Rhetorical Context of Paul's
Galatian Discourse
1. Background of the Letter to Galatians : An Overview
2. The Socio-Historical Context of Galatia
3. Identity of the Opponents in Galatia
4. Exploring Postcolonial Insights
in Galatians : An Exegetical Inquiry
1. The Interpretative Framework of Galatians (1:1-10; 6:11-18)
2. The Autobiography of Paul (1:11-2:14)
3. The Central Affirmation of Paul (2:15-21)
4. Revisiting the Sacred Stories and the Scripture for the `Other' (3:1-5:12)
5. Radical Ethics of the Community (5:13-6:10)
5. Envisioning the Postcolonial Identity
of Paul : A New Search
1. Identity as a Process of Identification
2. Dunn and Hodge on Paul's Identity
3. Paul's Hybrid and Strategic Essentialist Posture : Re-drawing his Self-Consciousness
4. The Third Space of Emancipation : The Christological-Ekklesial Space
Conclusion
Bibliography
Subject Index
Author Index
Roji T. George, MA [Sociology], MTh, DTh [New Testament], is Professor
of New Testament at SAIACS, Bangalore. Earlier, he has taught at Luther W. New Jr.
Theological College, Dehradun, (2001-2016) in the Department of New Testament Studies and
has served as the Managing Editor of `Doon Theological Journal' for a number of years. He
is a recipient of the J. G. Frank Collison Award for Theological Research (2014) for his
work on Luke's portrayal of Paul's mission in Ephesus in Acts 19. He has authored several
important articles in national and international journals. He lives in Bangalore with his
wife, Anjana, and two young daughters, Joanne and Janet.
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