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The Faith of the Outsider
by Frank Anthony Spina
Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2005. 206 pages. $16.00. ISBN 0-8028-2864-7.
USING THE ART AND methodology of narrative and rhetorical criticism, Frank Spina examines selected biblical stories and characters to argue that “exclusivity is at the heart of the biblical message” (p. 9). God elected and formed a specific community—Israel—for the purpose of the world’s restoration, but within the biblical text certain stories feature “outsiders” who are as much a part of the divine plan of restoration as the Jewish and Christian communities. These “outsiders” have a role and a place in God’s unfolding plan of salvation for all humankind.
The characters and stories studied include Esau, Tamar, Rahab, Naaman, Ruth, and the Samaritan woman in John’s Gospel. Spina also includes Jonah, whom he views as a prophet among, to, and against outsiders. Additionally, he considers Achan and Gahazi in relation to Rahab and Naaman, respectively, to highlight role reversals that include both “outsiders” and “insiders.” Writing for college students, seminarians, and the general layperson, Spina has crafted his material into seven chapters plus an introduction that lay out his approach and arguments. The introduction offers insight into Spina’s own assumptions as well.
Readers will appreciate Spina’s careful literary analysis of various biblical texts used to support the central argument and theme of this volume. His main theological argument, namely, that grace and salvation is a gift for all, is well argued and reaffirms the fact that the divine vision is greater and larger than the human being’s ability to interpret it, or even understand it.
From a hermeneutical perspective, Spina’s work needs more critical thought. For example, from whose perspective is Esau an outsider? From Jacob’s? From Spina’s? From today’s readers’? The crew in Jonah each cried to his god (Jonah 1:5). Why, then, does Spina refer to them as pagans (p. 94)? Additionally, Spina refers to Tamar’s deception of Judah as a “sordid transaction,” but from whose cultural perspective? Tamar’s? Judah’s? Spina’s? Some readers’ today? Much more work needs to be done on the critical assessment of the stories and their characters in relation to their own cultural and social times, and not just from a contemporary perspective. This volume offers a solid challenge as to how we view God, salvation, and the human condition then and now.
CAROL J. DEMPSEY
UNIVERSITY OF PORTLAND
PORTLAND, OREGON
Cross-Cultural Paul: Journeys to Others, Journeys to Ourselves
by Charles H. Cosgrove, Herold Weiss, and K.K. Yeo
Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2005. 301 pp. $25.00. ISBN 0-8028-2843-4.
THIS EXTRAORDINARILY RICH volume is a fascinating invitation to read and re-read Paul from six cultural contexts. The authors do not need theoretical justification of their approach and its presupposition that any interpretation necessarily reflects the reader’s cultural context, for the book demonstrates it. The only problem that critical biblical studies need to address is failure to recognize that our interpretations are culturally marked. For this we need to read with people who approach Paul from other cultural perspectives. Thus, each author, after a lively cultural autobiography, reads Paul from his own cultural perspective (Argentinean for Weiss, European-American for Cosgrove, Chinese and Chinese-American for Yeo), and with people from another culture (African-American for Cosgrove, Native-American for Yeo, and Russian Orthodox for Weiss). In most cases they avoid the trap of reading for “subaltern others,” by clarifying their own perspective as readers of other people’s readings. Each chapter is a thematic discussion of central theological concepts in Paul’s uncontested letters, and more specifically, a discussion of those concepts and passages that are particularly significant from the interpreter’s cultural context. The conclusion presents in a more systematic way the key differences among these six cultural interpretations.
I believe the thematic approach proposed by the authors is appropriate and helpful for their readers. This cross-cultural exercise shows us, to our surprise, that Paul’s concepts have many more possible connotations than we thought. We discover how narrow our understandings of our favorite Pauline concepts (justice, freedom, law, redemption, sin, soteriology, eschatology, theology, and ethics) may be. But we also discover the richness of many “simple” concepts we assumed we understood. When we self-consciously read Paul’s letters against the cultural horizon of the Argentinean view of death, the Chinese view of love as community relationship, or the North American view of human rights, we discover both how culturally influenced our readings have been and the richness of Paul’s letters. The authors help us make this discovery not by abstract technical exegetical discussions, but by going back and forth between lively presentations of stories or histories that draw us into their respective cultural web and readings of Paul’s texts from that perspective. I highly recommend this book as an excellent textbook for exegetical classes as well as a rich resource for preaching on Paul’s letters.
DANIEL PATTE
VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
Can I Get a Witness? Reading Revelation through African American Culture
by Brian K. Blount
Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2005. 167 pp. $16.95. ISBN 0-664-22869-0.
ONE OF THE LEADERS IN the intersection of cultural and biblical studies here offers an approach to Revelation from the perspective of African American culture that finds witness to be the key to this difficult book. For Brian Blount, Revelation is an apocalyptic call to bear witness to Christ’s lordship through active, public, nonviolent resistance to the claims of Caesar and thus to work in synergy with God to transform the world’s injustice into God’s justice. Rejecting the notion that any biblical text has one “objective” sense, Blount contends that each culture provides a framework for a text and thus has a revelatory function as it turns many potential meanings into authoritative significance for a particular community.
African-American culture is an especially appropriate guide to Revelation because of its long experience of oppression and resistance. Blount brings this experience to bear on his interpretation of central aspects of Revelation: a witness (martys in Greek) is first of all a prophetic voice of resistance, not a martyr (as also in the experience of slaves); the book’s central christological image of a slaughtered lamb is not primarily about Christ as sacrifice or scapegoat but about Christ as witness and nonviolent “homeopathic cure” for violence (as also in the case of leaders like Sojourner Truth and Martin Luther King); and the hymns of Revelation function as acts of resistance (as also in the case of much black, especially rap, music).
Blount’s reading of Revelation is creative, illuminating, and generally compelling. Though he advocates the liberating, decolonizing hermeneutic associated with cultural studies, he does not allow his cultural framework to determine textual meaning as much as to suggest (by analogy) new meanings whose validity needs confirmation from the text itself. The result is a series of fresh insights into Revelation as witness against Caesar and for Christ. Yet in the first chapter Blount still claims that culture “reveals” rather than “suggests” or “provides lenses.” That claim is theologically problematic, for it fails to recognize that the gospel is the critical criterion for all cultures, and that all cultures contain elements that are contrary to the gospel (as Blount himself acknowledges with respect to the violent character of some rap music). Nonetheless, we can learn much from his approach and should eagerly await the forthcoming commentary to which these essays point.
MICHAEL J. GORMAN
ST. MARY’S SEMINARY & UNIVERSITY
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND
Jesus, The Bible, and Homosexuality: Explode the Myths, Heal the Church
by Jack Rogers
Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 2006. 169 pp. $17.95. ISBN 978-0-664-22939-9.
JACK ROGERS HAS WRITTEN a timely and important book describing his own journey and the struggles of the (Presbyterian) church in addressing the status of homosexual persons within the Christian community. Rogers has unparalleled credentials as a conservative-moderate evangelical Christian voice within the Presbyterian Church (from his time as professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, to his work at San Francisco Theological Seminary, and his service as Moderator of the Presbyterian Church USA). His is also a deeply thoughtful and honest voice that will challenge all Christian communities to be more welcoming and inclusive of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and trans-gender Christians.
The volume begins with Roger’s narration of his own story and struggle as an evangelical Christian in approaching the issue of homosexuality, beginning with a study he helped to lead at the Pasadena Presbyterian Church in 1993. In the process, he describes the debate over homosexuality in the PCUSA since 1976 and pays special attention to the issue of biblical authority and interpretation. He invites the reader to accompany him along the path of his own story and his own change of heart and mind to a more inclusive approach to gay and lesbian Christians.
In my view, the core of the book rests in the second and third chapters (“A Pattern of Misusing the Bible to Justify Oppression,” and “Interpreting the Bible in Times of Controversy”). Here Rogers deftly narrates what he knows best: the history of the Presbyterian Church in its dialogues with the scriptures and creeds as it dealt with various controversial issues in times past, especially slavery and the role of women in the church. This is the single best discussion I have read of the parallels between the church’s past struggles over slavery and women and the church’s present struggle over homosexuality. Rogers describes with clarity how leading figures of the day in the Presbyterian Church appealed to scripture and tradition to argue for slavery and for the subordination of women. A similar pattern emerges in the modern fight over homosexuality. The problem is that the contemporary church has not learned from its past mistakes how best to interpret scripture. In particular, Rogers notes how current church law permits a pastoral approach regarding heterosexual divorce and remarriage, but mandates a legalistic approach towards gay and lesbian people. He goes on to discuss the usual biblical texts on same-sex relations, and does so clearly.
Rogers concludes by calling the church to move beyond its stereotypes regarding homosexuality, its violent rhetoric against gays and lesbians, its exclusion of gay and lesbian Christians from ordained ministry, and its opposition to the blessing of committed same-sex marriages. In short, Rogers sounds a prophetic cry with which serious Christians must wrestle as they seek to discern the leading of God’s Spirit in Christ.
JEFFREY S. SIKER
LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA |
