Update: 19/06 – Posted a second, more organised/developed post here – Subverting the Empire 2.
20/06 – Paul has a really helpful reflection on Ian's and my own comments about the day here on Prodigal Kiwi.
Went to the new CMS building in Oxford today for a Blah… day led by Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat instead of a day of lectures at CYM in Bristol. Brian and Sylvia spoke about Subverting the Empire, from their book Colossians Remixed – which is a kind of alternative commentary on Colossians with an emphasis on the context of the Roman Empire and Jewish tradition.
The day was really interesting – learnt a lot about context and biblical interpretation, as well as fuelling a few other reflections to do with the church and culture.
The first thing I found really eye-opening was about the need to interpret scripture through 4 different contexts. I think I had two of these before but not the whole set.
- Context of the Jewish scriptures/tradition
- The Macro-Context – Roman Empire
- The Micro-Context / Microcosm – eg. in Colossians the context of the church in Colosse
- Our own cultural context
The big thing was about Paul being subversive towards the Roman Empire through the letter – and about how he presents an alternate narrative/story to the story presented by the Roman occupation. The problem is whether in presenting an alternative, Paul's intention is to build an alternative way of living – ie. Christendom, Kingdom of God – or simply an alternative way of living under Roman rule.
And if Paul calls the Colossians to reject the culture of their day, is he calling us to isolate ourselves from ours? Or do we pick and choose what is helpful or not? Or embrace culture? Neither of these three seems entirely satisfactory to me – I'm still trying to search for the "third way".
So, there's some initial thoughts – spending a lot of time reflecting of Christ and culture, and the church and culture at the moment, and today has provided a lot of fuel to keep reflecting on. Hopefully, as I begin to explore this more I'll keep posting some ideas and thoughts.
Other bloggers writing about the day: Rich | Ian | Jonny
