LUKE'S PARABLES: INVITATION TO RESIST (NT-3105)

In this course, the student will situate Luke’s Parables (Good Samaritan, Prodigal Son, Rich Man and Lazarus, etc) in the Gospel’s narrative, economic, and (colonial) diasporic context.  Using recent research, the student will contextualize the short narratives within a First Century agrarian subsistence regime, considering how the Master-Slave relation is produced by local and Imperial State authorities.  Furthermore, the student will consider the challenges of ‘belonging’ in the Jewish diaspora and ask how these short diaspora narratives disrupt meaning or counter-narrate power under the Roman Empire.  Hopefully, the students will bring the parables into the contemporary world, learning to ask how economic crises serve those who have while marginalizing the rest. Interested students should have taken or be taking concurrently an Introduction to New Testament or Introduction to the Gospels course. [Faculty Consent required; 20 max enrollment]