One Womanist’s View of Racial Reconciliation in Galatians

In contemporary society, the devaluation of black and brown bodies in the United States is a continuing problem. Black and brown bodies falling as a result of police violence along with the continued degradation of black female sexuality or transgender sexuality (as opposed to cisgender women) in the context of Women’s Marches is also problematic. In her various works, Kelly Brown Douglas highlights how Christian theology has not adequately addressed its complicity in degrading black and brown bodies. Moreover, critical social theorist Pierre Bourdieu highlighted habitus and body capital as ways to theorize around body issues. Engaging these scholars, this essay problematizes Paul’s privileged use of his own body as “bearing the marks of Jesus” in Galatians 6:17. This essay argues that biblical scholarship has not adequately wrestled with the uncritical wholesale adoption of Pauline “identity” and “body” language while thinking through initial steps out of this conundrum.

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/jfemistudreli.34.2.04

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