Loving Resistance and Resistance through Love: A Multilayered Reading of Paul’s Teaching and Loving Testimony in the Letter to Philemon
Ebook
The Letter to Philemon is one of the most beautiful rhetorical letters written by Paul--and yet, at the same time, perhaps the most underread letter in the New Testament. Paul wrote this letter out of love, hoping to persuade the slave master Philemon to choose compassion rather than follow the typical Roman attitudes towards slaves; to treat Onesimus as a brother in Christ rather than as an inferior, subhuman chattel. This letter is not only theologically important but also important in a practical sense because it is more than mere words--it is a testimony. In order for readers to better appreciate the true depth of the meanings in the letter, this book is written in a rather creative way. Each chapter begins with a selected scene from the movie Les Miserables, to introduce the key theme of the chapter. Then the author will interpret the details of the text of the letter and the other relevant texts in the Pauline corpus. The final section of each chapter is a creative story, based on the text and historical context. The purpose of inventing these creative stories is to help readers better grasp the historical context and, most importantly, the rhetoric in the letter.
“Alex’s book is fascinating. This is a book about love, faith,
and divine acceptance. It narrates different characters and scenes
in Les Misérables that help readers understand different
themes in Philemon. People usually hold prejudices in different
social statuses and hierarchies. But this book behaves as a
corrective and helps readers to orientate toward divine love. I
highly recommend.”
—Ming Him Ko, Alliance Bible Seminary
“Reading Paul’s letter to Philemon to address a fundamental
question about how one can live in love and hope within systems of
oppression, Ip gives us a fresh and refreshing reading that
challenges some long-standing assumptions about the well-known
apostle and his much-debated letter.”
—Tat-siong Benny Liew, College of the Holy Cross
“Approaching Philemon through the narrative lens of Les
Misérables, Alex Ip insightfully unveils the social and
ecclesial impact of Paul’s approach to the complexities of
first-century slavery though imaginative, source-based historical
reconstruction, rhetorical analysis, and close attention to the
apostle’s Greek terminology. Writing for the pastoral edification
of the everyday reader, Ip powerfully argues that the epistle’s key
theological motif is faith working in love, enabling believers to
resist unconsciously held social norms and prejudices.”
—James R. Harrison, Sydney College of Divinity
- Title: Loving Resistance and Resistance through Love: A Multilayered Reading of Paul’s Teaching and Loving Testimony in the Letter to Philemon
- Author: Alex Hon Ho Ip
- Publisher: Resource Publications
- Print Publication Date: 2022
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781666707472, 9781666707465, 1666707465, 9781666707458, 1666707457, 1666707473
- Resource ID: LLS:9781666707472
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-22T14:10:12Z
Alex Ip is assistant professor of New Testament at Divinity
School of Chung Chi College in the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
He is the author of A Socio-rhetorical Interpretation of the
Letter to Philemon in Light of New Institutional Economics: An
Exhortation to Transform a Master-Slave Economic Relationship into
a Brotherly-Love Relationship (2017). Ip served as CEO of a
poverty caring NGO before he became a university
professor.