Hermeneutic of Resistance

The Parable of the Dishonest Manager (or Shrewd Manager), found in Luke 16:1-8, is a notoriously difficult text to interpret. Why does Jesus appear to praise the dishonest steward, and does he intend for us to imitate such actions? In this episode, I will look at this parable in its historical and cultural context, and help us to understand how Jesus and his audience might have understood its meaning. I will also offer some thoughts on Jesus' teaching following the parable concerning "unrighteous wealth."https://www.hermeneuticofresistance.com/Episode Bibliography:Cardenal, Ernesto. The Gospel in Solentiname. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2010.Craddock, Fred. Luke (Interpretation). Louisville: John Knox Press, 1990.Culpepper, R. Alan. "Luke" in New Interpreter's Bible, v. IX. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994.Herzog, William R. Parables as Subversive Speech: Jesus as Pedagogue of the Oppressed. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994.

Of all Jesus' parables concerning wealth and poverty, perhaps none has a more scathing denunciation of the excesses of the wealthy than the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, found in Luke 16:19-31. In this episode, we find that the parable provides a sharp critique of the wealth inequality of Jesus' time and of our own.https://www.hermeneuticofresistance.com/Episode Bibliography:Barram, Michael. Missional Economics: Biblical Justice and Christian Formation. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018.Blomberg, Craig. Interpreting the Parables. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1990.Craddock, Fred. Luke (Interpretation). Louisville: John Knox Press, 1990.Herzog, William R. Parables as Subversive Speech: Jesus as Pedagogue of the Oppressed. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994.Levine, Amy-Jill. Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi. New York: HarperCollins, 2014.Miranda, Jose Porfirio. Communism in the Bible. Translated by Robert R. Barr. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1982.

The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) and the Parable of Minas (Luke 19:11-27) are two similar stories. They both involve a master going away on a journey and entrusting different sums of money to his servants. Almost invariably, popular interpreters have these parables as allegories for the time in between and first and second comings of Jesus. In this readings, the master represents Jesus, who expects to find his disciples hard at work using their gifts in service of his kingdom. However popular, such interpretations are deeply problematic. In this episode, I will explore alternative ways of reading these parables, and suggest an interpretation where the master does not represent Jesus and the third servant, though condemned by the master, is actually a kind of tragic hero.https://www.hermeneuticofresistance.com/Episode Bibliography:Craddock, Fred. Luke (Interpretation). Louisville: John Knox Press, 1990.Herzog, William R. Parables as Subversive Speech: Jesus as Pedagogue of the Oppressed. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994.Johnson, Luke Timothy. “The Lukan Kingship Parable.” Novum Testamentum 24:139-159.Levine, Amy-Jill. Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi. New York: HarperCollins, 2014.

The parable of the workers in the vineyard, found in Matthew 20:1-16, is a story about a vineyard owner, a group of workers, and the wages they are paid. In both scholarly interpretation and popular preaching, this parable is often made into a story about the afterlife and eternal rewards. But what if, in telling a story about workers and wages, Jesus actually intended to say something about workers and wages? In this episode, I offer three readings of this parable, each of which focuses on what the parable might teach us about the economics of God’s kingdom. https://www.hermeneuticofresistance.com/Episode Bibliography:Carter, Warren. Matthew and the Margins: A Sociopolitical and Religious Reading. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2000.Herzog, William R. Parables as Subversive Speech: Jesus as Pedagogue of the Oppressed. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994.Levine, Amy-Jill. Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi. New York: HarperCollins, 2014.Osborne, Grant R. Matthew (ZECNT). Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010.

On this special episode, I am joined by Alex Gapud to discuss Jesus and empire. We look at Mark 5:1-20, the story of Jesus and the Gerasene Demoniac, and Ched Myers’ interpretation of it. We also lean on Alex’s expertise as a scholar of the British empire to discuss how the effects of the colonial era are still felt today.https://www.hermeneuticofresistance.com/Episode Bibliography:Ched Myers, Binding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus

In Revelation, Babylon is a code word for Rome and serves as a parable for understanding the oppression of empire in all times and places. This episode, my final one on the book of Revelation, explores the image of Babylon, why its fall is good news, and how we might apply these Scriptures today.https://www.hermeneuticofresistance.com/Episode Bibliography:Daniel Berrigan, The Nightmare of God: The Book of RevelationM. Eugene Boring, Revelation (Interpretation)Wes Howard-Brook and Anthony Gwyther, Unveiling Empire: Reading Revelation Then and NowMichael J. Gorman, Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and WitnessJ. Nelson Kraybill, Apocalypse and Allegiance: Worship, Politics, and Devotion in the Book of RevelationPablo Richard, Apocalypse: A People’s Commentary on the Book of RevelationWilliam Stringfellow, An Ethic for Christians & Other Aliens in a Strange Land.

What does feminism have to do with Revelation? A lot, actually! In this bonus episode, I walk us through some of the female imagery in the book and discuss how feminist interpretation can help us understand the book in ways that lead to justice and equality for all persons.https://www.hermeneuticofresistance.com/Episode Bibliography:Wes Howard-Brook and Anthony Gwyther, Unveiling Empire: Reading Revelation Then and NowMichael J. Gorman, Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and WitnessAmy-Jill Levine, editor, A Feminist Companion to the Apocalypse of John.Tina Pippin, Death and Desire: The Rhetoric of Gender in the Apocalypse of John.Elisabeth Schussler-Fiorenza, Revelation: Vision of a Just World.

What is the “mark of the beast?” And what about 666? In my fourth full episode on Revelation, I take a look at these symbols and how they were meant to encourage and inform early Christians resisting the Roman Empire. We’ll see how empire and its oppression call for resistance on the part of the faithful.https://www.hermeneuticofresistance.com/Episode Bibliography:Daniel Berrigan, The Nightmare of God: The Book of RevelationM. Eugene Boring, Revelation (Interpretation)Wes Howard-Brook and Anthony Gwyther, Unveiling Empire: Reading Revelation Then and NowMichael J. Gorman, Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and WitnessJ. Nelson Kraybill, Apocalypse and Allegiance: Worship, Politics, and Devotion in the Book of RevelationPablo Richard, Apocalypse: A People’s Commentary on the Book of Revelation

In this bonus episode, I take a look the concept of “the Antichrist,” offering an exegesis of some of the key Scriptures in the development of this idea.https://www.hermeneuticofresistance.com/Episode BibliographyBeverly Roberts Gaventa, First and Second Thessalonians (Interpretation)D. Moody Smith, First, Second, and Third John (Interpretation)N.T. Wright, Paul and the Faithfulness of God

In my third full episode on Revelation, I cover a couple of the most famous images in the book, the Four Horsemen and Armageddon, with an eye as always towards John of Patmos’ anti-imperial message. https://www.hermeneuticofresistance.com/Episode Bibliography:Daniel Berrigan, The Nightmare of God: The Book of RevelationM. Eugene Boring, Revelation (Interpretation)Wes Howard-Brook and Anthony Gwyther, Unveiling Empire: Reading Revelation Then and NowMichael J. Gorman, Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and WitnessJ. Nelson Kraybill, Apocalypse and Allegiance: Worship, Politics, and Devotion in the Book of RevelationPablo Richard, Apocalypse: A People’s Commentary on the Book of Revelation

This short bonus episode is about the rapture, a future, end-time event during which, some believe, all Christians will be suddenly taken out of the world. It includes an explanation of what the rapture is and what kind of theological system it is a part of. And I'll show why I do not think it is taught in the Bible, and why the rapture is actually harmful to Christian thought and witness. https://hermeneuticofresistance.comEpisode Bibliography:Beverly Roberts-Gaventa, First and Second Thessalonians (Interpretation)Ben Witherington III, 1 and 2 Thessalonians: A Socio-Rhetorical CommentaryN.T. Wright, "A Farewell to the Rapture," https://ntwrightpage.com/2016/07/12/farewell-to-the-rapture/

The second in a series on Revelation, this episode covers the letters to the seven churches from chapters 2-3 and the "throne room" vision of chapters 4-5, with a special focus on the meaning of heaven and earth in the book.https://hermeneuticofresistance.com Episode Bibliography:M. Eugene Boring, Revelation (Interpretation)Wes Howard-Brook and Anthony Gwyther, Unveiling Empire: Reading Revelation Then and NowMichael J. Gorman, Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and WitnessJ. Nelson Kraybill, Apocalypse and Allegiance: Worship, Politics, and Devotion in the Book of RevelationEugene H. Peterson, Reversed Thunder: The Revelation of John and the Praying Imagination.Pablo Richard, Apocalypse: A People’s Commentary on the Book of Revelation

A bonus episode elaborating on last week's introduction to the book of Revelation.Episode Bibliography:Daniel Berrigan, The Nightmare of God: The Book of RevelationM. Eugene Boring, Revelation (Interpretation)Wes Howard-Brook and Anthony Gwyther, Unveiling Empire: Reading Revelation Then and NowMichael J. Gorman, Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and WitnessJ. Nelson Kraybill, Apocalypse and Allegiance: Worship, Politics, and Devotion in the Book of RevelationPablo Richard, Apocalypse: A People’s Commentary on the Book of Revelation

The first in a series on Revelation, this episode introduces the book of Revelation as a “handbook for resistance.” I give an overview of the methods for interpreting the book and discuss its literary genre and historical context, with a focus on the author, John of Patmos as our “brother in the resistance.” https://hermeneuticofresistance.com Episode Bibliography:Daniel Berrigan, The Nightmare of God: The Book of RevelationM. Eugene Boring, Revelation (Interpretation)Wes Howard-Brook and Anthony Gwyther, Unveiling Empire: Reading Revelation Then and NowMichael J. Gorman, Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and WitnessJ. Nelson Kraybill, Apocalypse and Allegiance: Worship, Politics, and Devotion in the Book of RevelationPablo Richard, Apocalypse: A People’s Commentary on the Book of Revelation

The second in a two-part series on Daniel, this episode looks at responses to the oppressive regime of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, comparing and contrasting the resistance of the Maccabees and the community that produced the book of Daniel.https://hermeneuticofresistance.comEpisode Bibliography:John J Collins, The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to Jewish Apocalyptic LiteratureAnathea Portier-Young, Apocalypse Against Empire: Theologies of Resistance in Early JudaismW. Sibley Towner, Daniel (Interpretation)

The first of two covering the book of Daniel, this episode looks at the brutal oppression of the Jewish people under Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the Seleucid Empire through the lens of the apocalyptic vision of Daniel 10-11.http://hermeneuticofresistance.comEpisode Bibliography:John J Collins, The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to Jewish Apocalyptic LiteratureAnathea Portier-Young, Apocalypse Against Empire: Theologies of Resistance in Early JudaismW. Sibley Towner, Daniel (Interpretation)

Ezra and Nehemiah are often held up as heroes of post-exilic Israel, but do their actions justify this positive reception? This episode casts a critical eye on the projects of Ezra and Nehemiah, especially Nehemiah's wall, and proposes that their actions were imperialist and oppressive. A counter-imperial, liberating perspective, however, was offered by their contemporaries whose work was recorded in Isaiah 56-66, which is often called Third Isaiah.http://hermeneuticofresistance.comEpisode Bibliography:Paul D. Hanson, Isaiah 40-66.Wes Howard Brook and Anthony Gwyther, Unveiling Empire: Reading Revelation Then and Now.

A brief description of what to expect from this new podcast, Hermeneutic of Resistance.https://www.hermeneuticofresistance.com/