Horsley, R. A., (Ed) In the Shadow of Empire
Written 01 December 2009
Published By London: WJK 2008
In this volume Richard Horsley brings together some of the most prominent contemporary commentators on (anti-) imerial facets of the New Testament. All of the contributions are worth reading, and many of them, written as they are by Americans, comment on resonances with today’s imerial pretensions exemplified in the Bush administration and incursion into Iraq. There are essays on Israelite anti-imperial stances, exemplified by Walter Brueggemann in Israel’s opposition to the world powers of its day, Assyria, Egypt and Babylon: even where they are victorious over Israel the OT authors show that it is only because they are instruments of divine agency. Norman Gottwald illustrates the egalitarian polity which springs from Yahwism and which challenges monarchical and hierarchical class differentiation. Warren Carterand Brigitte Kahl show how Matthew and Luke respectively accommodate the Christian story to Roman imperial sensitivities but nevertheless present a subversive gospel at variance with Roman hegemony, in that the Lord is not the emperor but a lowly peasant executed by the emperor. Kahl’s chapter is particularly instructive on the differences between Lukan portrayals of Paul and the the apostle’s portrayal of himself in his Letters. Neil Elliott demonstrates the breadth and depth of Paul’s anti-imperial sentiments, suggesting that the view of Paul’s social conservatism stems from the dominance of the Pastoral Letters. Elliott locates signs of nascent challenges to imperial ideology in most of the authentically Pauline Letters. Horsley himself offers a typically combative chapter on Jesus and Empire, noting the anti-imperial flavour of the exorcisms (with Rome cast as Satan/Belial), the Legion episode of Mk 5, Jesus’ attack on the temple and its priests as a cipher for his opposition to Roman rule and settlement. In the final contribution Greg Carey identifies key anti-Roman elements in Revelation, revolving round the book’s challenge to show to whom faith was rightfully owing: the emperor or the lamb who was slain. As a collection of articles, this is a book not to read from start to finish but to dip into and ponder over a period of time.
Reviewed By Richard Bryant
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