The Apostle to the Conquered

by Lopez, Davina

• ISBN13: 9780800697693
• ISBN10: 0800697693
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-10-01
• Publisher: Fortress Pr

Summary

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.

Author Biography

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

Table of Contents

Illustrations	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xvii
The Nations in Nero's Nightmare	p. 1
The Problem with the Nations	p. 4
A Gender-Critical Approach to the Problem	p. 6
A Non-Idealist Framework	p. 7
Empire-Critical and Postcolonial Frameworks	p. 8
Feminist and Queer Approaches	p. 11
Summary and Outlook	p. 16
Re-Imagining Paul and the Nations	p. 17
Ideology, Imaginary, Imagination, Re-Imagination	p. 17
Mapping Roman Imperial Ideology	p. 19
Re-Mapping the Nations in Paul's Letters	p. 22
The Fate of the Nations in Roman Imperial Representation	p. 26
The Visual Representation of Roman Imperial Ideology	p. 27
Visual Traditions and the Language of Roman Conquest	p. 29
Personifications of Conquered Enemies in Hellenism	p. 29
Representations of Captured Barbarians in the Roman Republic	p. 31
Personifications of Peoples and Provinces in the Roman Republic	p. 34
The Visual Representation of the Romans/Nations Hierarchy	p. 35
A Judaea Capta Coin	p. 35
The Cuirassed Statue of Augustus	p. 38
Reliefs from the Sebasteion at Aphrodisias	p. 42
The Portico of Nations at Aphrodisias	p. 45
Cup 1 of the Boscoreale Treasure	p. 47
What Has Judea to Do with Britannia?	p. 49
Consistency in Visual Representation of the Romans/Nations Hierarchy	p. 49
The Nations ôUnitedö in Deference to Rome	p. 51
Conclusion	p. 54
The Fate of the Nations and the Naturalization of Conquest	p. 56
Predestination and the Historicity of Roman Conquest	p. 57
Romulus (and Remus) as Founder(s) of Rome	p. 58
The Conception of Romulus and Remus	p. 59
Romulus Kills Remus and Builds ôCreationö	p. 63
Rape of the Sabine Women	p. 66
Aeneas as Founder of the Roman Empire	p. 71
Jupiter's Prediction in Aeneid, Book 1	p. 73
Anchises's Underworld Prediction in Aeneid, Book 6	p. 76
Aeneas's Prophetic Shield in Aeneid, Book 8	p. 81
The Justification and Naturalization of Roman Conquest	p. 86
Augustus as the Re-founder of Rome	p. 87
The Nations in the Res Gestae	p. 88
Res Gestae as Monumental Inscription Displaying the Nations	p. 95
Res Gestae among Inscriptions of the Nations	p. 97
Judeans and Other Barbarians	p. 100
Romans and Barbarians/Nations	p. 101
Celts/Gauls/Galatians as Exemplary Non-Roman Nations	p. 103
Roman Military Violence as Sexual Conquest over the Nations	p. 108
Jews among the Conquered Nations	p. 110
Summary	p. 113
The Ritualization and Eternalization of Roman Conquest	p. 113
Description of the Roman Triumph	p. 114
Triumph as a Display of the Nations	p. 115
Conclusion	p. 117
Re-Imagining Paul as Apostle to the Conquered	p. 119
ôConversion,ö ôCall,ö and ôConsciousnessö (Gal 1:13-17)	p. 119
Traditional Perspective: Paul Converts from Judaism to Christianity	p. 120
New Perspective: Paul Is Called, Not Converted	p. 121
Empire-Critical Perspective: Paul Is Called, but to Politics	p. 122
Gender-Critical Re-Imagination: Paul Is Called to Consciousness	p. 124
The Politics of the New Creation	p. 137
Paul Adopts the Subordinate Position among the Other Defeated Nations	p. 137
The Defeated Paul among the Nations: ôBecome Like Meö (Gal 4:12)	p. 140
The Defeated Paul as a Suffering Mother (Gal 4:19)	p. 141
Bear One Another's Burdens: A Movement of Inter-national Solidarity	p. 146
The Politics of the New Creation	p. 147
The Uniform of International Solidarity (Gal 3:26-29)	p. 149
Performing International Solidarity (Gal 5:9-6:2)	p. 152
Summary	p. 153
The Fate of the Nations in Pauline Imagination (Gal 4:21-5:1)	p. 153
Abraham as the Father of the Nations	p. 154
Paul as a Mother among the Defeated Nations	p. 156
Two Covenants: With Caesar and with God	p. 162
Conclusion	p. 163
Dislocating Paul's Universalism	p. 164
Representing Imperial Civilization as a ôYoke of Slaveryö	p. 164
(Dis)Locating Universalism	p. 166
Toward Visually Literate New Testament Studies	p. 168
Visualizing Significant Others	p. 170
Abbreviations	p. 174
Notes	p. 176
Index	p. 245
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