Abraham Our Father: Paul and the Ancestors in Postcolonial Africa

by Israel Kamudzandu (Editor)

Overview

Father Abraham had many sons . . . So goes the chorus that the Shona people learned from European missionaries as part of the broader experience of colonization that they share with other African peoples. Urged to abandon their ancestors and embrace Christianity, the Shona instead engaged in a complex and ambiguous negotiation of ancestral myths, culture, and power.

Israel Kamudzandu explores this legacy, showing how the Shona found in the figure of Abraham himself a potent resource for cultural resistance, and makes intriguing comparisons with the ways the apostle Paul used the same figure in his interaction with the ancestry of Aeneas in imperial myths of the destiny of the Roman people. The result is a groundbreaking study that combines the best tradition-historical insights with postcolonial-critical acumen. Kamudzandu offers at last a model of multi-cultural Christianity forged in the experience of postcolonial Zimbabwe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781451426298
Publisher:	Augsburg Fortress, Publishers
Publication date:	05/01/2013
Series:	Paul in Critical Contexts
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	363 KB

About the Author

Israel Kamudzandu isAssociate Professor of New Testament Studies in the Lindsey P. Pherigo Chair at St. Paul School of Theology and an active member of the Contextual Biblical Interpretation Group at the Society of Biblical Literature.

Table of Contents

Other Books in the Series vii

Acknowledgements ix

Preface xi

Introduction 1

1 Empire, Gospel, and Culture 7

2 Zimbabwe's Religious Cultural Configurations 23

3 Postcolonial Shona Christianity 45

4 Aeneas-A Constructed Ancestor 65

5 Aeneas and Abraham Paradigms 83

6 Conclusion and Implications 97

Bibliography 105

Index of Names 115

Index of Passages 117