Readiness to Withstand Hardship as a Corroboration of Legitimacy in the New Testament.

WUNT 270. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010.
xxii + 443 pages. ISBN 9783161506123 (link to publisher’s homepage; link to Google Books)

Abstract:

In interaction with Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of “cultural capital,” this study examines the often overlooked “value” that most New Testament writings assign to Christians’ readiness to withstand persecution as a means of corroborating their standing as Christ’s followers. Notably, claims about persecution can have both positive and negative implications for constructions of legitimacy: those claims can, on the one hand, confirm the standing of Jesus’s faithful followers or can, on the other hand, question the standing of those construed as persecutors. Furthermore, assertions about the value of suffering and persecution derive from numerous presuppositions, and are therefore open to dissenting viewpoints. An epilogue considers some later examples of early Christian martyrs and “confessors”; John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs; and the ethical and hermeneutical quandary of corroborating an individual’s or a group’s legitimacy on the basis of withstanding persecution, a quandary that the New Testament bequeaths to the modern interpreter.

Reviews of Persecution, Persuasion and Power:

Casmir Bernas, Religious Studies Review 37/3 (2011): 217

Jeffrey E. Brickle, Journal of Biblical and Pneumatological Research 5 (2013): 135–41

Camille Focant, Revue théologique de Louvain 44/1 (2013): 113–14

Paul Foster, “Persecution and Identity.” The Expository Times 122/11 (2011): 564

Sebastian Fuhrmann, Theologische Literaturzeitung 137/12 (2012): 1341–44

Shawn Kelley, Catholic Biblical Quarterly 75/1 (2013): 155–57

Frank J. Matera, Estudios Bíblicos 69/3 (2011): 358–60

Paweł Marek Mucha, The Polish Journal of Biblical Research 12 (2013): 143–44

Birger Olsson, Svensk exegetisk årsbok 77 (2012): 313–16

Todd D. Still, Biblical Interpretation 21/4-5 (2013): 553–55

Christoph Stenschke, International Journal for Religious Freedom 4 (2011): 154–55

Alexander Stewart, Review of Biblical Literature (November 11, 2012)

Brian J. Tabb, Review of Biblical Literature (September 18, 2012)

John White, Journal for the Study of the New Testament 34/5 (2012): 19