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I bring you all greetings from the Seminary of the Southwest, a sister and neighbor, an institution that has Long and deep ties with Austin Presbyterian Seminary since its founding in 1952. I believe the seminary,

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the Southwest may have met on the grounds of the Presbyterian Seminary and borrowed the original professors from its staff . That relationship continues formally and informally between our institutions today across registration of students, joint library catalog and

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frequent sabbatical teaching swaps happen among us as well as the network of friendships among faculty and administration. I want to thank my dear colleague, President Wardlaw who has honored me by inviting me to deliver the jones

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lectures. I want to thank also the board of trustees, the alumni, the faculty and staff students for your extraordinary hospitality in these days. And I want to thank my brothers in christ dr Jennings dr

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Yamada and dr Walton. I am humbled to be in your company and to learn with you. The energy in this gathering is still very high and I hope we don't experience why middle schools, schedule after

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lunch, band and jim. Yeah. Reading paul's letter to the romans in our current political landscape can illuminate contemporary conversations about the shape of human society, family, race, and world religions, faithful and

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critical interpretation of this ancient text exercised in community can enter complex polarized conversation to offer life giving visions for global human flourishing. An ancient piece of religious literature . Paul's letter to the romans still operates powerfully in

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our current political discussion. Written to the house churches in Rome. In the mid fifties of the common era, paul preaches the gospel of jesus christ to a community established by other missionaries that he plans soon

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to visit after coming in person to Rome. He will make his way to Jerusalem to deliver the collection from the gentile churches. Then continue his mission by traveling to spain to preach the Gospel there. I

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am not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God for salvation for all who have faith , the jew first and also the greek. The subject of romans is life and death, Sin and

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grace and the salvation of the world. It is a drama about God's work in time, sending jesus christ and the effects of that action on the relationship between Israel and the nations of the world. This

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first century letter, interpreted by Augustine, Luther, Calvin and Bart, has shaped christian theology and its account of sin. The self, grace and salvation have formed Western culture explicitly and implicitly, Paul's epistle

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to the romans functions for many as a source and authority for understandings about gender, race, religion, ecology, and international relations. The letter of the christian apostle paul to the romans is structured around key

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discourses of masters and slaves. Male and female jews and gentiles and the mission of God for salvation. And it's compelling argument for the justification of jews and gentiles and the righteousness of God and with this authority

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as a classic christian text, the narratives of romans have set the boundaries and categories for these discussions. What I offer today is part of a larger project that explores the discourses of romans. How romans shapes

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political conversations. I begin today with the discourse of slavery and freedom, because the opposition between slavery and freedom is the central dynamic in Paul's rhetoric of salvation in romans, and the contrast between slavery and freedom

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as it was in the first century, describes the most dramatic difference in ways of being human, a metaphor that gains its meaning. By analogy with the social institution, it reflects the dynamic of domination of

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the one who rules the curios. The master over the one who was ruled interpreters of romans take radically different positions about the theological value of the metaphor of slavery and their stances have political implications about how society

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should be organized and how people relate to one another . The letter does not directly command obedience to slaves , has to Ephesians and colossians, but it does employ slavery and freedom as a metaphor for a spiritual

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relationship. In the opening greeting, paul refers to himself as a slave of jesus christ. In Romans eight, Paul contrasts the spirit of slavery with the spirit of adoption and the bondage of a slave,

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with the freedom of a child. So then brothers and sisters. We are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh, or if you live according to the flesh, you will die.

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But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live for all war led by the Spirit of God are Children of God. For did you did not receive a spirit

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of slavery to fall back into fear? But you have received the spirit of adoption when we cry Abba father, it is that very spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are Children of God. And

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if Children then heirs heirs of God and joint heirs of christ, if in fact we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him, sociologist, philosopher and renaissance thinker Orlando Patterson has argued

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that paul's opposition of slavery to freedom set the groundwork of the Western political idea of freedom at the same time. Another passage in romans extends and elaborate on the image in a way that appears to use slavery

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in a positive way. What then should we sin ? Because we are not under law, but under grace by no means? Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves,

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you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin which leads to death or of obedience which leads to righteousness. But thanks be to God , that you having once been slaves of sin have

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become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you are entrusted, and that you, having been set free from sin have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of

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your natural limitations, or just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity. So now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification. Influential commentators have drawn the

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conclusion from this injunction that human beings are by nature subject and that their only choice is between a malignant or beneficent. Master. This reading asserts that for paul, humans are never free but always enslaved to

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a Master and Lord as sermons. And preachers quote bob Dylan, you're going to have to serve somebody according to this. Anthropology, slavery per se is not negative, but only the quality of the Master

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interpreters acknowledge how different this view is from modern notions of human freedom, free will and human rights, but they do not attempt to negotiate the divergence. They read the choice that Paul sets up in Romans

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six, between bondage to sin and bondage to God as the exclusive spiritual options. So how are we to evaluate the metaphor of slavery in these passages and in romans as a whole? What is most important

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to consider historical arguments about the character of ancient slavery ? The particular context of Paul's injunction to pay taxes in Romans 13, The use of the rhetoric of master and slave in the 19th century, arguments for

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and against slavery at stake is how we picture human beings in relation to one another to government and to God. The scripture even have a place in political arguments for this lecture. I want to propose a

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process for interpreting romans in relationship with political questions and the outline is going to be this putting politics first . The symbolic universe of romans and the symbolic universe of in the interpreter negotiating distance and too short examples

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, addiction, and war and peace. In the speeches of George W. Bush, that's short and that's at the end. And it's going to excite you. Just stay tuned political interpretation. First,

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political interpretation of scripture is a practice to be embraced , not rejected by pastors, preachers and readers of the bible. By putting politics in the foreground. We name our theological and ethical commitments and the questions

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for which we seek wisdom. By putting politics in the foreground. We prevent it from working mischievously in the background, and by putting politics in the foreground , we engage our sacred text with the most urgent

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ethical issues in our world. I want to tell you how I came to this conviction about the need to put politics first. In 2002, I spent my sabbatical in South Africa. South African. Biblical

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scholars had written eloquently about how their hermeneutics of the bible had been forged during the anti apartheid struggles. The explicit role of a literal interpretation of Romans 13 1-7, And underpinning the apartheid regime, caused them

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to craft deliberative hermeneutics, wherein belief in human dignity and equality resisted and critiqued literal interpretations of Romans 13 everywhere. It was clear how the political context of those struggles shaped biblical scholarship. I was teaching the

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letter to the romans at the University of Kwazulu natal . My time coincided with the outbreak of the 2nd Iraq war. My husband said, I think there's going to be a war. I don't think you

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should go on your sabbatical. And I said, oh no, I'm going. And I was confronted at that time with the critical view of the United States by liberal intellectuals in South Africa. Teaching.

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There was for me, a classic experience of displacement . I became acutely aware of the shared cultural language that I depended on without realizing it to be an effective teacher, the humor, the body language,

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assumptions about lecturing and note, taking, reading and writing. All these were absent in this classroom of students from Swaziland, Botswana, Mozambique and South Africa . In addition to being naive about the political climate

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, I made enormous assumptions about the universality of my own worldview. For example, on the day we read Romans six, I began to introduce the concept of reigning kingship and basil a wayne. I blindly

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stated the kingship was a bit of an alien concept for us. When my student from Swaziland informed me that their kingdom had a king. I uh huh . Mhm. I convened a discussion around the category

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of slavery and freedom and one of the students made the case that the contemporary analogy for slavery was obviously global capitalism exported by the United States. When I returned to my Episcopal Theological Seminary context where the culture

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wars continue to rage, I realized that it was the struggles around sexuality and what then we called homosexuality , that was forcing the her medical question for me and my new testament colleagues, even if we weren't

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making explicit arguments about sexuality. These debates were setting the parameters for our conversation. Yet many were still claiming biblical scholarship as an a political enterprise. More than 15 years later, at this historical moment,

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it is painfully evident in the United States that questions that seemed resolved by common consensus indeed are not. Questions about family, shape, gender and marriage are highly contested race, and the history and legacy of

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slavery appeared to be painfully unresolved discourses of otherness and exclusion are ascendant. Again, many identified the political nation of Israel with the people of Israel, whose possession of the land is a necessary preliminary step toward

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conversion of Israel to christ and the return of the messiah. I was I was getting these lectures ready . I was watching PBS and a piece came on about the sanctuary movement and a pastor Russ Reeves was

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quoted why he didn't Use his church as a sanctuary . And he quoted Romans 13 one. All authorities are instituted by God. If a reader of scripture puts politics first, she violates the norm. That

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brackets biases and claims biblical studies to be objective. The separation of religion and politics was once a matter of pastoral caution. According to popular piety, the bible was about spirituality and not politics. It's subject

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was individual salvation, not public life. However, America in the past decade has seen politicians citing the bible in election campaigns, employing scripture as a weapon in the culture wars and claiming christian ideals as the

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basis of american life. Biblical scholarship also has rediscovered the political dimensions of the bible, written, compiled , revised and transmitted under empire Persian greek and roman using language of good news advent. Lord Commonwealth and

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king terms from imperial government and deploying that language amid the realities of their political life. Their work has shown how religion and politics in the ancient world cannot be distinguished. The current political landscape in America as

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well as the character of the bible itself demonstrates that the comfortable separation between religion and politics can no longer be maintained popularly. Politics is identified with polarized american party system as I use it here. I mean

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, politics in the wider sense of seeking the common good, making decisions about human life. It is this realm of politics that calls for christian reflection and engagement. To engage the bible with these questions requires

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interpretation. Hermeneutics, everybody should go to seminary and talk about hermeneutics that's spiraling interpretive process that takes the letter, the world behind the text and the world in front of the text into account. It is

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how readers make sense of scripture by making analogies between the text and their public and private lives. When we deny political commitments and reading scripture, they operate anyway. If they are visible, they can be

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evaluated and critiqued. When we denied political engagement in the outcome of interpretation, we render biblical interpretation abstract and ineffective. Two, the symbolic universe of romans and the symbolic universe of the interpreter. I cite

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what was for centuries, the most influential new testament texts about Christian and politics Romans 13 1-7 theologians have constructed theories of church and state upon this passage and for centuries it was an unproblematic statement of the relationship

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between divine and earthly rulers. The teaching of Romans 13-127 has provided divine legitimation and Christian theological support to totalitarian and recep repressive regimes. I'm just going to quote the first line, I'm sure you know,

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the rest of it by heart, let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever

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resists authority resists what God is appointed and those who resist will incur judgment, Paul instructs the audience with the universal injunction that refers to everyone. The verb to be subject, who bought a city means to

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act as appropriate to one's proper place in an established order, paul states a theological rationale for that submission , that all authority comes from God and all authorities are instituted by God. Throughout the century, the

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politics of the interpreter and her context has shaped the reading of this text in earlier eras, when the view of the world of the readers was identical with that of the passage that there was a divinely appointed

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social order in which each person had a rank. Then the interpretation presented no difficulties. However, is the view of the relationship of secular rulers to God changed. A gulf grew between the assumptions of the

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text and the perspective of the readers, and that gap presented an interpretive challenge as time passed in the world view of the readers changed. Then its relevance and authority shifted as well. In terms of the

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passages, authority Paul says it, but readers do not think it is true or they believe it is not true anymore. As the political context has changed , those who do not want to read Romans 13

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1-7 as a universal statement about the relationship of God and government adopt new strategies to interpret the passage. Some historical critics judged it to be an inauthentic addition to the letter, added by a later scribe interpolation

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. Others claim that its affirmation of earthly rulers contradicted what Paul says elsewhere about the rulers of this age , and with Paul's overall apocalyptic orientation about the impending end of earthly authorities. Another passages of paul is

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more authoritative. Biblical scholars have read the passage with its very within its very specific historical situation in Rome , under the rule of Nero, with its literary context and identified its rhetoric with the conventions of hellenistic

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jewish apologists. Apologetic rhetoric, contextualizing historical scholarship has conceded in putting the past, succeeded in putting the passage in his place as a time limited instruction. The current consensus of historical critics is that Paul's teaching

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in Romans 13 reflects conventional hellenistic Jewish understanding of the relationship of heavenly to earthly authorities. The instruction is focused specifically on the paying of taxes, urged to project protect the jewish community from the violent repression by

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Rome. This explanation succeeds in making it particular historically and socially located and therefore not universal. The passage is put in its place in the past. However , the historical, critical solution to this problem does

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not address the central difficulty of interpretation, which is the gulf between a world view that sees human hierarchical society reflecting a divine order and one that does not . By naming the worldview of divine appointment of rulers

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as conventional. This scholarly position makes the world view of the text something to ignore rather than it's something to engage. It implies that the worldview that was conventional is not distinctive of paul, the christian apostle

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. And I propose that is precisely the differences between convention in the first century and convention unexamined, unexplored , unconscious, unquestioned ways of seeing the world in the present that cry out for interpretation. I use

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the term symbolic universe to uh to describe the categories used by the text to make sense of the world . A term from the sociology of knowledge. Symbolic universe describes the over arching pattern of symbols, narratives

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and meaning in which the elements in the complex of the letter makes sense, norman Peterson says that symbolic universe refers to the world not as it is in itself, but it is known by persons living within

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society denotes a comprehensive system of shared knowledge, expressed in language, symbol and myth, serving to define legitimate and give meaning to institutions and individual identities and social interactions between them. While some scholarship may use

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the term theology to describe the assumptions with paul works , symbolic universe refers to the foundational symbols rather than the reflection upon them. The symbolic universe of romans is of course, that which pulse shares with Judaism

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, monotheism, law, election holiness, paul does not have to argue or prove in favor of the foundational elements of this symbolic universe, such as the existence of one god who called Israel into covenant.

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He does not have to argue that God created male and female, or that God will judge evil and reward goodness in paul's symbolic universe, uh is furnished with scriptural narrative and echoes of language from psalms and

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profits invoking a world of meaning. For those who read the letter, the concept of symbolic universe will help us to understand contrasting approaches to interpreting scripture as different strategies to negotiate the distance between the symbolic universe

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of the text and of the present. What makes Romans 13 127, a challenge for interpretation is that the symbolic universe assumed by and made explicit in the text is no longer shared by those who read the

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text in a symbolic universe of nation states, globalization and democracy. The gulf or gap between the symbolic universe of the text and the symbolic universe of the readers calls into question the relevance or meaningfulness of this

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scriptural text symbolic universe is important because most critical debates in politics today are over rival competing symbolic universes. Different ways of seeing the world. It is not any particular instruction. Let every person be subject to

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the governing authorities or let women be silent in the churches that possesses power but the power of an entire symbolic universe. In projecting and constructing a social order of hierarchy and subordination or of quality and mutuality or

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some other form of arrangements, The language of submission in Romans 13 belongs to a network of elements in the symbolic universe that requires the subordination of Lower social position to a higher one. The logic is built

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on the necessary obedience of the one who has ruled to the ruler, Elizabeth Schussler. Fiorenza uses the term cury Arkle to describe the symbolic universe spelled out in the household codes of later pauline letters, the

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language of slaves and masters slavery and freedom is at the heart of the symbolic universe of curie arche, the conventional way of understanding the world adopted by paul in romans 13, It operates in the depiction of

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the success of rains of Adam and Christ in Romans five and the passage in Romans six about becoming slaves of righteousness and in the transformation from slaves to Children in Romans eight, in the overarching symbolic universe of

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Paul's letter to the romans, the relationship between master and slave speaks of the most radical relationship of subordination between one person and another. Slavery is that power relationship in which the superior possesses total control over the

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being of the inferior and the subordinate owes the superior complete allegiance. When used of the power of sin , slavery evokes the oppressive and inescapable character of sins , domination When slavery is used metaphorically and romans,

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it is almost always paired with its opposite state that of freedom. Slavery is synonymous with death. Freedom is it's opposite equivalent to life. And another way of speaking of salvation baptism freeze the one baptized and

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transforms the relationship within the community and in the social world transforms the hierarchical relationship of jew and gentile, male and female, free and slave. In the overall perspective of the letter, slavery is understood to

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be a negative temporary condition from which human beings are liberated through the act of God and jesus christ interpreting slavery when contemporary commentators address the language of slavery and freedom and romans and theologically evaluate the metaphor of slavery

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. Their strategies resemble those of the interpreters of Romans . 13 one is to assign the slavery metaphor to convention to an element of paul symbolic universe that he's simply accepted. Another is to argue that first century

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slavery was not compatible. It's not comparable to chattel , slavery has prospered in the american colonies. With this historical argument, they deny the appropriateness of the analogy between American slavery and the slavery metaphor in Romans

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. It's fascinating that the 19th century debates about slavery , both pro and anti slavery writers employ historical arguments about the slavish nous of ancient slavery. These historical arguments, I believe, avoid the central Herman medical

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problem, which as I have said, is the distance between the symbolic universe of curie arche inscribed in the text and the symbolic universe of the world that north american readers inhabit, One that is characterized by

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autonomy and democracy. To adequately evaluate the slavery metaphor in romans, it is necessary to take into account not only or primarily the ancient context, but the current political landscape in which these narratives are red.

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The most critical factors are the role of the slavery metaphors in the debates. To support slavery and the current political and social reality of slavery and human trafficking . The community of nations has judged the master slave

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system that pervades the imagery and logic of romans to be immoral and to contradict the principles of christian morality and human values in general. However, before that consensus emerged through centuries of reason, dispute and violent

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conflict, the direct injunctions for obedience for slaves and christian scripture, its assumption about the reasonableness of slavery and its use of the metaphor of slavery for salvation were all harnessed to argue for slavery, legitimate legitimacy

00:28:15.640 - 00:28:29.460

and divine sanction. That is a critical thing to take into account when evaluating the slavery metaphor in romans . The expansion of human slavery is a contemporary modern phenomenon is the second critical factor to take into account

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. Although slavery has been officially abolished and is condemned in the modern world, forms of slavery has expanded as globalization has made ownership of human beings by others possible and profitable. The United Nations has identified human

00:28:45.160 - 00:29:02.600

trafficking as a form of slavery. By the year 2000, the opposition to sex trafficking United Political positions as opposed as feminist and evangelical, who both condemned human trafficking and allied for its abolition. The role

00:29:02.600 - 00:29:18.260

of the slavery metaphor in support of slavery and the reality of contemporary slavery should play a decisive role in how vigorously interpreters of romans val arise the image of slavery for human beings in relationship to God, recognizing

00:29:18.650 - 00:29:44.050

that the slavery metaphor brings with it the entire symbolic universe of curie archy should raise serious caution about amplifying slavery negotiating distance. When readers of romans recognized the curie Arkle structure that pervades the logic of the letter

00:29:44.050 - 00:29:56.640

, they are confronted with the vast distance between the symbolic universe of curie arche and the symbolic universe with which we operate in the 21st century. The assumptions of that world are alien to the Western post enlightenment

00:29:56.640 - 00:30:10.670

, political and theological perspective of contemporary interpreters. Although it is impossible to fully know our own symbolic universe in all its complexity, we can recognize that in our political imagination. We do not think in terms

00:30:10.680 - 00:30:23.690

of spheres ruled by absolute powers. But if nation states or spheres of influence, we think about people represented or participating in the government. We do not think about ourselves as corporate members of the family of

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adam, for example, or that sin infects everyone with whom we associate. Our view of the human person is not of someone who is always enthralled to a master and Lord, but rather of an autonomous

00:30:36.710 - 00:30:49.370

individual with the power of will and decision. Even in our theological reasoning, the period Ization of history and the metaphors of war and conquest of the apocalyptic imagination are no longer the dominant way that christians think

00:30:49.380 - 00:31:02.950

of progress and politics. The very elements of the perspective of Romans five and 6 that make the text of rhetorically effective. The dramatic sense of corporate solidarity , the assertion of charismatic abundance, the portrayal of

00:31:02.950 - 00:31:23.380

despotic powers of life and death is it is exactly those that are most distant from our own worldview. Different ways to negotiate distance. One widespread approach is to is to claim the superiority of the ancient world

00:31:23.380 - 00:31:37.090

view by naming its scriptural or biblical in contrast to our own, which is non biblical, secular or modern. This approach is favoured by conservative or traditionalist readers. With this approach, christian readers of the

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text. To claim the bible's authority will respond by submitting to that vision of the world and by divesting themselves of views of humanity and God that our individualistic or anachronistic or modernizing another common strategy, attempts to

00:31:52.290 - 00:32:05.430

retain the authority of the text as a whole were relative izing one part of it employed by both traditional and liberal interpreters. This approach is to identify some circumstances in the world behind the text that modifies the

00:32:05.430 - 00:32:16.360

apparent meaning of the text. This is my favorite . This is the rabbit out of a hat approached a scriptural interpretation. For example, the theory that tax revolts in Rome threatened the safety of the Jewish

00:32:16.360 - 00:32:30.920

population explains the instructions in Romans 13 or the difference between ancient roman slavery and american chattel slavery makes comparisons and applications of the romans passage to the world of the interpreter impossible. Or this is a favourite one

00:32:30.920 - 00:32:45.940

, and Paul, threats from radical factions. Made Paul's Conservative Council a wise accommodation. The opposite approach is to concede the enormous gulf between the ancient world view where humans are by definition servile and the modern

00:32:45.940 - 00:32:58.070

one that imagines them to be autonomous, self directed and free, is too great to be reconciled. Some liberal or rationalist IQ positions have argued in that direction and as a result, have asserted that the

00:32:58.070 - 00:33:13.640

biblical texts are useless for moral or theological teaching. So what do we do with the discourses of slavery and freedom in romans? Of what value are they ? First, I believe that those who read romans

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with a commitment to democracy and equality should name that interpretive lens and use it boldly theologically to critique curie Arkle forms of organization reflected in the rhetoric of the text. And I propose a strategy to address distance

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between the curie article symbolic universe of romans and the democratic symbolic universe of the world in front of the text of the contemporary interpreter. This strategy puts the symbolic universe of the text into conversation with the symbolic

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universe of the interpreter through a process of trying on the worldview of the text. I'm just going to give a couple of examples of this and we'll try it. This imaginative exercise enables us to see features

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of our perspective that are obscured in our symbolic universe . When the reader returns to the world in front of the text, she is able to make choices about how to interpret and proclaim the biblical text.

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This exploration is an imaginative exercise of world exploring like exploring a work of art as christian readers. We returned from the text to our own world and somehow bring the vision of the text meaningful and meaningfully into

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our own. The model of trying on is not built on nostalgia for the first century worldview, nor repudiation of the ideological perspectives of the present. It is predicated on the conviction that the text continues to

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have value when engaged faithfully in the present, committed engagement with the Biblical text in the contemporary, in the context of contemporary political conversation will shed light and offer new perspectives for communities of faith. To brief

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examples quickly, when we try on the slavery metaphor in romans and imaginatively enter into the imperial reality, they convey, we become aware of the ways that the symbolic universe of freedom and democracy does not make

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visible the forces that limit and challenge autonomy and self determination. It's sad but true. A significant example is the phenomenon, for example, of addiction, a major feature of contemporary society addiction to it.

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Legal and illegal drugs and alcohol is implicated in crime , abuse, incarceration and poverty. Coexisting with mental illness, addiction is a personal and societal illness that the gospel the power of God for salvation for all

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who have faith addresses in the present. The experience of addiction is described in images that resonate with the language of slavery and romans, addiction is defined as being taken over by forces outside oneself that are occupying

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, taking over, dominating, subduing and ruling. Gerald. May I quote, true addict, surrender themselves completely to a substance activity or relationship. The result is utter powerlessness and lack of control regarding the

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object of attachment which in turn takes presidents over everything else, even life itself attachment is any process that enslaves our desires and creates a state of addiction. People who suffer from addiction understand themselves possessed by alien

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force that does damage. The defining quality of addiction is precisely lack of autonomy and the inability to maintain control. Enslavement with its constant threat of injury and death, accurately describes addiction. Powerlessness is a key

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element of connection between the dynamics of slavery, metaphors , romans and the account of alcoholism in of alcoholics anonymous the most widespread treatment for alcoholism, the movement a s first step is acknowledging powerlessness over addiction.

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We admitted we were powerless over alcohol, that our lives had become unmanageable to be effective. The treatment requires that one renounced the foundational belief of the modern symbolic universe, autonomy and control, and to submit

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to a higher power, or to accept another ruler , belief that one can control one's use of alcohol Is the single error error which will prevent or undercut recovery released from addiction is possible through reorientation to an

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alternative discipline. The exchange of masters, The exchange of regimes closely resembles the rhetorical contrast expect expressed in romans 6 16. Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you

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are slaves. Of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death or of obedience, which leads to righteousness in this system. Freedom is not the goal after slavery, but freedom

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is a self delusion that will lead to relapse and enslavement. The addiction is redirected to other fosse and expresses itself in single minded attention to another activity. Recovery practices religious affiliation, long distance running or other

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all consuming practices. The way that the theology of alcoholics anonymous mirrors the dynamics of slavery. Language and romans makes it possible for us to understand addiction as a modern form of slavery. Yeah, a prominent

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feature of the world. In front of the text , addiction is anna logically related to a feature of roman slavery. This way of understanding slavery finds relevance in the biblical texts and understands that is speaking of

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a problem that is current and urgent for readers. Slavery defined by powerlessness and associate with the threat of death is an apt metaphor for addiction. Trying on the text asks us also to ask critical questions about

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the limitations of the slavery narrative. For addiction slavery analogy, one limitation of the metaphor of slavery for addiction is that addiction is not a social relationship as a slave and master, but the interaction of a

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superior force upon a person. If addiction is a disease, then it does not act as a person , making decisions demanding and commanding. If universalized to every aspect of human life, slavery obscures opportunities for

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people to exercise their will and limits their agency. And this is true in addiction as well, submission to one tyranny after another, without the possibility of freedom is a bleak prospect, and it short circuits

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the vision of romans of being set free as Children of God. The total izing all or nothing vision of alcoholics anonymous. That echoes the romans. Language limits exploration of other possibly effective treatments for the disease

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of alcoholism. To question, the orthodoxy of powerlessness represents threat, danger, heresy and potentially death enslavement , maybe a metaphor that does not fit the understanding of alcoholism is a disease that would require treatment by

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medication. Paul's epistle to the romans is called upon in political debates about government, gender and sexuality in Israel and Palestine. one more short example, The language of slavery and freedom, tyranny and freedom was

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employed effectively in the speeches of George W. after 9 11 to justify the war on terror as a necessary means to break the reign of hatred and resentment and advance the force of freedom. I got interested

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in this during Bush's second inaugural address. We have another second inaugural address tonight and I read all the inauguration and state of the Union speech is of George Bush and in the instance of his speech is the

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symbolic universe of tyranny and freedom. And apocalyptic battle between opposing forces, made some political options visible and rather, and rendered others invisible invisible. And it was incredibly powerful rhetoric. Bush and his speechwriter,

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Michael Gerson, put on key elements of the symbolic universe of romans that operated powerfully to achieve the listeners ascent. The reason it sounded so right was because it echoed these amazing discourses of freedom and tyranny in

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romans. But critical analysis by one hearing the echoes of paul in these speeches could make the symbolic universe visible and therefore, if a critic wanted to, to take it off to take off this symbolic universe

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from the situation of terrorism and decide if there was another option. So finally, what to do with the slavery metaphor and the Kerry article symbolic universe in which it makes sense when we imaginatively try it on

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, it can show how human beings are at the mercy of forces. We cannot subdue addiction forces of tyranny, corporate evil, but to adopt the symbolic universe of submission and slavery permanently, as biblical is

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to surrender that commitment to equality and democracy that has been received and developed from our christian theological tradition and that is a central political commitment. My colleagues in South africa found in romans a way to resist a

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repressive regime. While reading against the grain of the rhetoric of submission and upholding the liberation of the Children of God. I read romans in conversation with contemporary politics, taking lessons from its curie Arkle history,

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putting politics up front and privileging democracy. Thank you . We might have time for one or two quick questions and remember if you use the microphone in the center of the elder, what exactly do you mean

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by Kerry arche or curie article? Uh curie arche refers to that symbol system in which a curiosity or a lord or master rains or rules curia wayne over a subordinate. So it includes the um hierarchy of

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male and female of father, two Children and a master to slave describes all that. So what critical difference are you trying to get at between Kerry arche and say monarchy or tyranny or something like that?

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Well monarchy and tyranny have a very close relationship with carrie archy unfortunately. Which creates a a challenge to some of our most valued symbols in Christianity like Lord . Thank you very much. Mhm. Mhm.