Onesimus Our Brother: Reading Religion, Race and Culture in Philemon (Paul in Critical Contexts) - Hardcover

Philemon is the shortest letter in the Pauline collection, yet-because it apparently involves a slave separated from his master-it has played an inordinate role in the history of slavery and the toxic brew of slaveholding and racism in the United States. No aspect of the letter's interpretation-whether the nature of Roman slavery, the roles of Philemon and Onesimus, or the function and intention of Paul's rhetoric-has escaped the distorting effects of that history.

In Onesimus Our Brother, scholars including leading African American biblical interpreters tease out the often unconscious assumptions about religion, race, and culture that permeate contemporary discussions of this letter and of the apostle Paul's legacy. 'The editors argue that interpreting Philemon is as weighty a matter from the perspective of African American experience as Romans or Galatians have proven to be in Eurocentric scholarship. The essays gathered here continue to trouble scholarly waters, interacting with the legacies of Hegel, Freud, Habermas, Ricoeur, and James C. Scott as well as the historical experience of African American communities.

Matthew V. Johnson is senior pastor at The Good Shepherd Church (Baptist) in Atlanta.

James A. Noel is the H. Eugene Farlough California Professor of African American Christianity at San Francisco Theological Seminary.

Demetrius K. Williams teaches in the theology department at Marquette University.

Philemon is the shortest letter in the Pauline collection, yet because it has to do with a slave separated from his master it has played an inordinate role in the toxic brew of slavery and racism in the United States. In Onesimus Our Brother, leading African American biblical scholars tease out the often unconscious assumptions about religion, race, and culture that permeate contemporary interpretation of the New Testament and of Paul in particular. The editors argue that Philemon is as important a letter from an African American perspective as Romans or Galatians have proven to be in Eurocentric interpretation. The essays gathered here continue to trouble scholarly waters, interacting with the legacies of Hegel, Freud, Habermas, Ricoeur, and James C. Scott, as well as the historical experience of African American communities.

Contributors include the editors and Mitzi J. Smith, Margaret B. Wilkerson, James W. Perkinson, and Allen Dwight Callahan.