Criminalization in Acts of the Apostles

Race, Rhetoric, and the Prosecution of an Early Christian Movement

Inbunden, Engelska, 2023

AvJeremy L. Williams,Jeremy L. (Texas Christian University) Williams,Jeremy L Williams

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In this study, Jeremy L. Williams interrogates the Book of Acts in an effort to understand how early Christian texts provide glimpses of the legal processes by which Roman officials and militarized police criminalized, prosecuted, and incarcerated people in the first and second centuries CE. Williams investigates how individuals and groups have been, and still are, prosecuted for specious reasons - because of stories and myths written against them, perceptions of alterity that render them subhuman or nonhuman, the collision of officials, and financial incentives that foster injustices, among them. Through analysis of criminalization in Acts, he demonstrates how Critical Race Theory, Black studies, and feminist rhetorical scholarship enables a reconstruction of ancient understandings of crime, judicial institutions, militarized police, punishment, and socio-political processes that criminalize. Williams' study highlights how the criminalization of Jesus followers as depicted in Acts enables connections with contemporary movements. It also presents the ancient text as a critique against the shortcomings of some contemporary understandings of justice and human rights.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2023-10-26
Mått159 x 235 x 22 mm
Vikt530 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor248
FörlagCambridge University Press
ISBN9781009366373

Tillhör följande kategorier

Diskriminering och rättvisa inom Samhälle och politik
Rättssystem inom Juridik
Judiska heliga texter inom Filosofi och religion
Biblar inom Filosofi och religion

I: 1. The analysis for rhetorical criminalization (ARC); 2. Analyzing structures in Ancient Roman and Jewish Criminalizing Discourses; 3. Analyzing stories and myths in Ancient Roman and Jewish criminalizing discourses; II: 4. 'I am a Human': criminal classification of humans and racializing assemblages in Acts; 5. 'Before the Court' and the confines of judicial structures in Acts and Callirhoe; 6. 'The Foundation of the Prison Shook' and the critical analysis of Apollo's, Dionysus', and Acts' myths; 7. 'Not Lawful for Romans' and the commitments of Roman elites in Acts.

'Societies routinely use language and policies about criminalization to protect their powerful members and degrade others. Jeremy Williams has given us a groundbreaking study for understanding how Acts depicts Jesus's followers as a movement at odds with the elites and systems that held and guarded prerogatives in the Roman world. Through careful analysis of rhetoric used to criminalize people as deviants and corrective translations of key passages in Acts, this valuable book provides clarity to the theological and apologetic tendencies of the Bible's narrative about the early church. Williams's critical reflections on how Acts illuminates the rhetoric of criminality in American society and vice versa make this book even more of a 'must read' within academic and ecclesial circles.' Matthew L. Skinner, Asher O. and Carrie Nasby Professor of New Testament, Luther Seminary