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A Postcolonial Commentary on the New Testament Writings
Since its emergence a few years ago, postcolonial biblical criticism has witnessed swift expansion and development in Biblical Studies. This critical approach has been increasingly applied to biblical texts as well as modern and postmodern interpretations and interpreters of these texts, yielding an ever-growing body of dissertations, scholarly articles, and volumes. In the process, this approach has become increasingly sophisticated as well in matters of method and theory.
This Postcolonial Commentary on the New Testament Writings represents a critical benchmark in postcolonial biblical criticism. Indeed, the Commentary stands as the most comprehensive application to date of postcolonial criticism to the biblical texts, with its focus on the entire corpus of the New Testament. It places the reality and ramifications of imperial-colonial frameworks and relations at the centre of biblical criticism. The various entries pursue their analysis across a broad range of concerns and through a number of different approaches.
They show, among other things, how texts and interpretations construct and/or relate to their respective imperial-colonial contexts; foreground literary, rhetorical, and ideological marks of coloniality and postcoloniality in both texts and interpretations; reveal how postcolonial reading strategies disrupt and destabilize hegemonic biblical criticism; and engage in critical dialogue with the visions and projects identified in texts as well as in interpretations. Toward this end, the Commentary has recourse to a highly distinguished and diversified roster of scholars, making this a definite point of reference for years to come.
This Postcolonial Commentary on the New Testament Writings represents a critical benchmark in postcolonial biblical criticism. Indeed, the Commentary stands as the most comprehensive application to date of postcolonial criticism to the biblical texts, with its focus on the entire corpus of the New Testament. It places the reality and ramifications of imperial-colonial frameworks and relations at the centre of biblical criticism. The various entries pursue their analysis across a broad range of concerns and through a number of different approaches.
They show, among other things, how texts and interpretations construct and/or relate to their respective imperial-colonial contexts; foreground literary, rhetorical, and ideological marks of coloniality and postcoloniality in both texts and interpretations; reveal how postcolonial reading strategies disrupt and destabilize hegemonic biblical criticism; and engage in critical dialogue with the visions and projects identified in texts as well as in interpretations. Toward this end, the Commentary has recourse to a highly distinguished and diversified roster of scholars, making this a definite point of reference for years to come.
480 pages, Paperback
First published November 15, 2007
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About the author
R.S. Sugirtharajah
25 books10 followersR.S. Sugirtharajah, a Sri Lankan theologian and lecturer, is Professor of Biblical Hermeneutics at the University of Birmingham, England. Prior to his current appointment, he was Senior Lecturer in Third World Theologies at Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham.
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June 25, 2011
One of the great benefits of this "commentary" is that it is not a strict commentary in the traditional sense.* Instead, it is a collection of essays, each written about a different New Testament book (or, in a few cases, a group of books--e.g. Luke-Acts) by a different scholar. The coherence, however, is signaled by each scholar's close attention to the ways in which postcolonial criticism may be applied to understanding the contexts and texts under discussion. In many ways, this is some of the best postcolonial criticism I have read yet, as the writers do not merely make "postcolonial" assumptions, but each defines the ways in which "colonialism," "imperialism," and "postcolonialism" all work together in their individual treatments. Even more, these essays do not merely apply critical theory to the New Testament works, but interact with the texts and contexts toward understanding and questioning the multi-leveled issues arising from first-century Christianity within a fluid complex of colonized and colonizing ideologies.
The methodological issues are best summarized and outlined in the Introduction by F. F. Segovia, in which he discusses the ways in which each scholar uses postcolonial criticism. The introduction thus outlines four main aspects of the essays in the collection: 1) definitions and uses of "postcolonial" criticism; 2) methodologies taken and balance between discussing the texts and contexts; 3) ideological stances of the essays' authors and texts considered; and 4) analytical implications for critical engagement both in the essays and in future work. Ultimately, this survey of the collection's contents reveals that the volume, in Segovia's estimation, depicts "a complex site of contending definitions and contrasting paths, varying findings and diverging encounters" (68)--much like the larger work of postcolonial studies embraces multiplicity and plurality.
The essays on the texts themselves do well to bring historical-cultural contexts together alongside the texts under discussion. For instance, Virginia Burrus does well to discuss not only Luke as a writer and his texts, but also the larger imperial world within which he worked, and (as Burrus claims) attempted to subtly subvert. Similarly, the essays by Neil Elliott and Sze-kar Wan on Paul's letters to Romans and Galations situate the texts among (respectively) the Roman imperial ideology and Jewish issues of identity. Stephen Moore offers similar analysis of Revelation, moving between the Roman Empire against which John wrote and the rhetorical polemical strategies of the text itself.
Finally, R. S. Sugirtharaja's post-script offers insights on two levels: the unfinished and/or unstarted work of postcolonial studies still to be undertaken, and the need for further interaction with public issues of the present. In doing so, she notes the wide array of approaches and texts ripe for postcolonial criticism in biblical studies--foremost of which are extra-canonical texts, and even questions of canonicity itself. Among other areas proposed are the diversity of backgrounds in the first century, as Sugirthraja notes that "Jewish Christianswere the original hybridizers" (457), and problems of the colonizing monotheism of the Bible (both Old and New Testaments). In the final thoughts of the post-script, Sugirtharaja offers prescient notes toward the application of postcolonial academic studies to the wider realm of our current world issues: martyrdom, diaspora and asylum-seekers, and hybridity, liminality, and multiculturalism on a variety of levels that have arisen along with globalization. These are all areas that should be taken into account in the next generation of biblical postcolonial studies, as Sugirtharaja appropriately notes, "The interpreter has not only a discursive function but also an interventionist one which is ethically and ideologically committed" (465). This commendable collection, then, provides some well established bases toward such further work.
* Nota bene: I did not read the entire volume, but only essays on the following texts (scholars' names in parentheses): Introduction (F. F. Segovia), Luke-Acts (V. Burrus), Romans (N. Elliott), Galations (S. Wan), Revelation (S. Moore), and the post-script (R. S. Sugirtharaja).
The methodological issues are best summarized and outlined in the Introduction by F. F. Segovia, in which he discusses the ways in which each scholar uses postcolonial criticism. The introduction thus outlines four main aspects of the essays in the collection: 1) definitions and uses of "postcolonial" criticism; 2) methodologies taken and balance between discussing the texts and contexts; 3) ideological stances of the essays' authors and texts considered; and 4) analytical implications for critical engagement both in the essays and in future work. Ultimately, this survey of the collection's contents reveals that the volume, in Segovia's estimation, depicts "a complex site of contending definitions and contrasting paths, varying findings and diverging encounters" (68)--much like the larger work of postcolonial studies embraces multiplicity and plurality.
The essays on the texts themselves do well to bring historical-cultural contexts together alongside the texts under discussion. For instance, Virginia Burrus does well to discuss not only Luke as a writer and his texts, but also the larger imperial world within which he worked, and (as Burrus claims) attempted to subtly subvert. Similarly, the essays by Neil Elliott and Sze-kar Wan on Paul's letters to Romans and Galations situate the texts among (respectively) the Roman imperial ideology and Jewish issues of identity. Stephen Moore offers similar analysis of Revelation, moving between the Roman Empire against which John wrote and the rhetorical polemical strategies of the text itself.
Finally, R. S. Sugirtharaja's post-script offers insights on two levels: the unfinished and/or unstarted work of postcolonial studies still to be undertaken, and the need for further interaction with public issues of the present. In doing so, she notes the wide array of approaches and texts ripe for postcolonial criticism in biblical studies--foremost of which are extra-canonical texts, and even questions of canonicity itself. Among other areas proposed are the diversity of backgrounds in the first century, as Sugirthraja notes that "Jewish Christianswere the original hybridizers" (457), and problems of the colonizing monotheism of the Bible (both Old and New Testaments). In the final thoughts of the post-script, Sugirtharaja offers prescient notes toward the application of postcolonial academic studies to the wider realm of our current world issues: martyrdom, diaspora and asylum-seekers, and hybridity, liminality, and multiculturalism on a variety of levels that have arisen along with globalization. These are all areas that should be taken into account in the next generation of biblical postcolonial studies, as Sugirtharaja appropriately notes, "The interpreter has not only a discursive function but also an interventionist one which is ethically and ideologically committed" (465). This commendable collection, then, provides some well established bases toward such further work.
* Nota bene: I did not read the entire volume, but only essays on the following texts (scholars' names in parentheses): Introduction (F. F. Segovia), Luke-Acts (V. Burrus), Romans (N. Elliott), Galations (S. Wan), Revelation (S. Moore), and the post-script (R. S. Sugirtharaja).
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