Toward Decentering the New Testament: A Reintroduction

by Mitzi J. Smith, Yung Suk Kim, Michael Willett Newheart (Foreword by)

Overview

Toward Decentering the New Testament is the first introductory text to the New Testament written by an African American woman biblical scholar and an Asian-American male biblical scholar. This text privileges the voices, scholarship, and concerns of minoritized nonwhite peoples and communities. It is written from the perspectives of minoritized voices. The first few chapters cover issues such as biblical interpretation, immigration, Roman slavery, intersectionality, and other topics. Questions raised throughout the text focus readers on relevant contemporary issues and encourage critical reflection and dialogue between student-teachers and teacher-students.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781532604669
Publisher:	Cascade Books
Publication date:	08/21/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	364
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Mitzi J. Smith is Professor of New Testament and Early Christian Studies at Ashland Theological Seminary, Detroit. She is the author of Insights from African American Interpretation; Womanist Sass and Talk Back: Social (In)Justice, Intersectionality and Biblical Interpretation; I Found God in Me: A Biblical Hermeneutics Reader; The Literary Construction of the Other in the Acts of the Apostles; and co-editor of Teaching All Nations: Interrogating the Matthean Great Commission.



Yung Suk Kim is Associate Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology, Virginia Union University. Kim is the author of eight books, including Christ’s Body in Corinth, Biblical Interpretation, Resurrecting Jesus, and Messiah in Weakness. He edited two volumes: 1–2 Corinthians and Reading Minjung Theology in the Twenty-First Century. Kim is editor of Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Religion and Journal of Bible and Human Transformation.

Mitzi J. Smith is J. Davison Philips Professor of New Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary and Professor Extraordinarius at the University of South Africa, College of the Humanities, Institute of Gender Studies. She co-edited Bitter the Chastening Rod (2022); co-authored Toward Decentering the New Testament (2018); and authored Womanist Sass and Talk Back: Social (In)Justice, Intersectionality and Biblical Interpretation (2018).










Yung Suk Kim is professor of New Testament and early Christianity at Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology, Virginia Union University. Kim is the author of numerous books, including How to Read Paul: A Brief Introduction to His Theology, Writings, and World (2021); Christ’s Body in Corinth: The Politics of a Metaphor (2008); and Toward Decentering the New Testament (Cascade, 2018; co-authored with Mitzi J. Smith). He also edited 1–2 Corinthians: Texts @ Contexts (2013).






Michael Willett Newheart is professor emeritus of New Testament at Howard University School of Divinity, and interim ministry specialist, American Baptist Churches of the USA. He is the author of “My Name Is Legion”: The Story and Soul of the Gerasene Demoniac (2004).



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Table of Contents

Foreword Michael Willett Newheart vii

Chapter 1 Introduction 1

Section I Interpretation and Contexts

Chapter 2 Biblical interpretation: An Invitation to Dialogue 11

Chapter 3 Greco-Roman and Jewish Influences on the New Testament 31

Chapter 4 Refugees, Immigrants, and Foreigners in the New Testament 39

Chapter 5 Roman Slavery and the New Testament 45

Chapter 6 Intersectionality and Reading Complexity in the New Testament 52

Chapter 7 The Privatization of Water, Ancient Rome, and the New Testament 61

Chapter 8 Some Matters of Translation and the New Testament 67

Section II The Gospels and Acts

Chapter 9 The Danger of a Single Story: The Synoptic Gospels 75

Chapter 10 Gospel of Mark 84

Chapter 11 Gospel of Matthew 105

Chapter 12 Gospel of Luke 139

Chapter 13 Gospel of John 161

Chapter 14 The Acts of the Apostles 176

Section III Pauline Epistles

Chapter 15 Significance of Paul as a Jewish Man in Diaspora 195

Chapter 16 The Body of Christ 201

Chapter 17 Romans 205

Chapter 18 1 Corinthians 221

Chapter 19 2 Corinthians 236

Chapter 20 Galatians 246

Chapter 21 Ephesians 254

Chapter 22 Colossians 262

Chapter 23 Philippians 266

Chapter 24 Philemon 272

Chapter 25 1-2 Thessalonians 279

Chapter 26 1-2 Timothy and Titus 285

Section IV Catholic Texts

Chapter 27 Letter of James 295

Chapter 28 Jude 302

Chapter 29 1-3 John 307

Chapter 30 1 Peter 311

Chapter 31 2 Peter 315

Chapter 32 Hebrews 319

Section V The Apocalypse of John/The Book of Revelation

Chapter 33 Contemporary and Ancient Apocalyptic Texts and Their Significance 329

Chapter 34 Apocalypse of John/Book of Revelation 334

Bibliography 353

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“This is the book I wish had been assigned in my days as a young Christian college undergraduate student. The authors go beyond pointing out the hubris of those who think a New Testament introduction can somehow be politically objective or ideologically neutral. Instead, they show us how a ‘de-centering’ of Scripture—in all its messiness—can serve as a form of ‘resistance literature’ which opens up ways of thinking otherwise and of imagining new worlds altogether.”

—Roberto Sirvent, Hope International University



“This exemplary volume represents refreshingly unchartered terrain in New Testament introductions, with conceptual and theoretical analyses that will help the reader understand why apprehending the noetic complexities of the politics of empire and power, gender, race, intersectionality, migration, postcolonial theory, and questions of hybridity, and subaltern agency, are thoroughly indispensable in interrogating early Christian origins, and in adjudicating the ever-evolving iterations and often contested implications of what this history means for critical pedagogies and practices of resistance, hope, and justice in our times.”

—Clarice J. Martin, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York



“The authors bring to the literary surface voices often relegated to the margins. The margin does not replace the center, but through historical, racial, ethnic, class, and gender analyses the book provides tools on how to dismantle its metes and bounds. This work renders a less hegemonic and more inclusive hermeneutical lens for studying the New Testament and the context that produced its content.”

—Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder, Chicago Theological Seminary



“This book establishes so many firsts. The most important may be that it marks a liminal moment in NT studies. In foregrounding what has been in the background it will open up new worlds of learning for students and teachers alike.”

—Michael Joseph Brown, President of Payne Theological Seminary



“Mitzi Smith and Yung Suk Kim offer a refreshing orientation to the New Testament that privileges marginalized perspectives, and deftly challenges many traditional assumptions about texts. Impressive in its scope and depth, the book masterfully explicates both historical-cultural contexts such as slavery and contemporary issues like migration. Anyone who reads this book will see the New Testament in a very different light. A much needed addition to biblical scholarship.”

—Raj Nadella, Columbia Theological Seminary

Editorial Reviews

This is the book I wish had been assigned in my days as a young Christian college undergraduate student. The authors go beyond pointing out the hubris of those who think a New Testament introduction can somehow be politically objective or ideologically neutral. Instead, they show us how a ‘de-centering’ of Scripture—in all its messiness—can serve as a form of ‘resistance literature’ which opens up ways of thinking otherwise and of imagining new worlds altogether.”

—Roberto Sirvent, Hope International University



“This exemplary volume represents refreshingly unchartered terrain in New Testament introductions, with conceptual and theoretical analyses that will help the reader understand why apprehending the noetic complexities of the politics of empire and power, gender, race, intersectionality, migration, postcolonial theory, and questions of hybridity, and subaltern agency, are thoroughly indispensable in interrogating early Christian origins, and in adjudicating the ever-evolving iterations and often contested implications of what this history means for critical pedagogies and practices of resistance, hope, and justice in our times.”

—Clarice J. Martin, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York



“The authors bring to the literary surface voices often relegated to the margins. The margin does not replace the center, but through historical, racial, ethnic, class, and gender analyses the book provides tools on how to dismantle its metes and bounds. This work renders a less hegemonic and more inclusive hermeneutical lens for studying the New Testament and the context that produced its content.”

—Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder, Chicago Theological Seminary



“This book establishes so many firsts. The most important may be that it marks a liminal moment in NT studies. In foregrounding what has been in the background it will open up new worlds of learning for students and teachers alike.”

—Michael Joseph Brown, President of Payne Theological Seminary



“Mitzi Smith and Yung Suk Kim offer a refreshing orientation to the New Testament that privileges marginalized perspectives, and deftly challenges many traditional assumptions about texts. Impressive in its scope and depth, the book masterfully explicates both historical-cultural contexts such as slavery and contemporary issues like migration. Anyone who reads this book will see the New Testament in a very different light. A much needed addition to biblical scholarship.”

—Raj Nadella, Columbia Theological Seminary

From the Publisher