The power of the word : Scripture and the rhetoric of empire / Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schüssler Fiorenza, Elisabeth, 1938-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bible--Influence.

Bible.

Bible--Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bible--Feminist criticism.

Feminist criticism.

Physical Description:

viii, 280 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Minneapolis : Fortress Press, [2007]

Summary:

What kind of power does scripture exercise? In The Power of the Word Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, the premier scholar of feminist biblical interpretation and early Christian history, explores this difficult hermeneutical question. Because Christian scriptures were formulated in the context of Roman imperial power, they have functioned-and still do so-in the service of empire, legitimating colonialist expansion, racist exploitation, and heterosexist discrimination. Schussler Fiorenza calls for a critical feminist decolonizing reading, capable of identifying both the destructive powers of empire and the radical democratic visions of justice and well being that are inscribed in the scriptural text. The Power of the Word makes a timely contribution not only to traditional fields such as Pauline and Apocalypse studies, but also to the developing intersection of feminist and postcolonial biblical studies and the study of empire.

Contents:

The rhetoric of empire : introduction

Empire studies as a new field in biblical studies

A radical democratic ethos

A critical political feminist hermeneutics

Situating the argument of this book

The power of Scripture and the rhetoric of empire

Empire as the context of Scripture today

Reshaping biblical the*logical studies

Empire and ekklēsia

A radical democratic imagination : the ekklēsia of wo/men

Debating Paul in the ekklēsia of wo/men

Toward a critical feminist decolonizing interpretation

Postcolonial criticism and feminist criticism

A decolonizing interpretation of the book of Revelation

Empire and the rhetoric of subordination

The ethos of kyriarchy : intersecting discourses of domination

A detoxifying/decolonizing reading of 1 Peter

The rhetoric of empire and G*d-talk : decolonizing the divine

Feminist critique of androcentric G*d language

Kyriocentric G*d language : the language of empire

Transforming biblical studies

The discipline of biblical studies

Transforming biblical studies.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 267-280).

ISBN:

9780800638337

0800638344

9780800638344

0800638336

OCLC:

150373962