Apostle to the Conquered, paperback edition: Reimagining Paul's Mission - Softcover

Davina C. Lopez

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0800697693 ISBN 13: 9780800697693

Publisher: Fortress Press, 2010

Synopsis

What did Paul mean by identifying himself as "apostle to the nations"? Davina C. Lopez finds the surprising answer in the way the Roman Empire depicted the relationship between conquering and conquered peoples in myths, inscriptions, and especially in the visual repertoire of statues and reliefs found in every Roman city. While Roman power was represented as aggressive and masculine, conquered peoples were systematically represented by images of helpless women.Lopez uses this key to unlock the themes of Paul's apostleship in a gender-critical "re-imagination" of his mission. Tracing themes of conquest and domination throughout sources contemporary with Paul, Lopez shows that Paul's language of "the nations" would have been heard by his contemporaries as confronting the Roman ideology of power and expressing solidarity with defeated peoples. Apostle to the Conquered reveals the subversive heart of Paul's theology, reframing his "conversion" in terms of "consciousness", and his exhortations as a politics of the new creation.

About this title

About the Author

Davina C. Lopez is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, and serves on the American Academy of Religion's Board of Directors.

Edition details

• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0800697693
• ISBN 13: 9780800697693
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 280