Week 6 – Response to Joel Greenwich’s comments on Dube

I had not thought of Dube’s Rahab as “cooperating with whomever has the most money,” and yet I can see where you would get that portrayal. I think that Rahab had an abundance of faith to hide the two spies in her house for the evening, and yet I also think Rahab may have simply been despising the authorities while being guided by God. On a side note, I think it’s extra interesting that the NIV Student Bible has a footnote in reference to “prostitute” to possibly mean “an innkeeper”… I am not sure exactly what to think here as I know that other women in the Bible (e.g. Mary of Magdala) have also possibly been given a degrading reputation when they may not deserve such horrible titles.    

Week 6 – Survival and Invention: Indigeneity in the Caribbean – Peter Hulme

Whether someone is considered “Caribbean” should not be decided by their DNA testing as we force Native Americans to “prove.” It would be very difficult for someone to “prove” they were indigenous to any culture in today’s “global community”—unless neither they nor their people had ever contacted anyone outside their region—as so many people have been influenced by other cultures, ethnicities, etc. How could we tell is someone was truly keeping their tradition alive or if they were inventing it to be different than others?     

Week 6 – Negotiating Caribbean Identities – Stuart Hall

Hall expounds the idea that so many Caribbean identities exist throughout the Caribbean that choosing one identity to describe them all would not be correct. In fact, Hall quotes Edward Seaga, “Can the crushed and extinct Arawaks […] represent the dauntless inhabitants of Jamaica?” (Castle, 282-83) In other words, many groups—with their own identities—co-exist in the Caribbean.

Week 6 – Colonialism and the Caribbean Novel – George Lamming

I thought Trumper’s “startling discovery that his black presence had a very special meaning in the world” (Castle, 276) was referring to a positive place in the world until I read about his experience in America. I still can’t believe that people would think of anyone as “less than human” or as “a different kind of creature. (Ibid.) People should never be made to feel ashamed of any aspect of their heritage, a feeling that colonialism tends to generate.

Week 6 – Rahab Says Hello to Judith: A Decolonizing Feminist Reading – Musa W. Dube

Even though I identify with Rahab in so many aspects of my life, I long to be more like Judith: strong, independent, not-caring-what-people-think, a bold leader, etc. I am surprised at how I relate both women’s characteristics and how Israel can be described by both as well through her collaboration with and resistance to imperialism. (Sugirtharajah, 156)

Week 6 – Implications of the text of Esther for African Women’s Struggle for Liberation in South Africa – Itumeleng J. Mosala

This article intrigued me as I had never thought of the book of Esther emphasizing patriarchy, social structure, or gender issues. I never thought of Queen Vashti as “revolting” against King Xerxes but rather as being defiant and non-submissive. How much my view of women’s roles in society have been shaped by the biblical interpretations of our male dominant culture!

Week 6 – The Church in the Context of the Kingdom – Fuellenbach

I was disturbed by this article. I have always felt that the Church—Christ’s Body—plays a dynamic role in the Kingdom—the Kingdom on earth. I also believe that Christ is the center of Christianity, so to decentralize Him as “the Way, Truth, and Life” is to pretty much denounce Christianity. Some scholars agree in universal salvation—through Christ’s death and resurrection—of all creation (e.g. Rahner’s “anonymous Christians”). I struggle with this theology as I do believe that God is constantly working in all creation…