Browsing by Author "Michael, Matthew"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Border-crossing and the Samaritan traveler : the crossing of borders in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:25–37)
    (Pieter de Waal Neethling Trust, 2019) Michael, Matthew
    Border-crossing is a defining subject in the contemporary field of postcolonial studies. Situating the parable of the Good Samaritan within this landscape, the present study engages the dynamism of border-crossing in the popular parable of the Good Samaritan. While the parable of the Good Samaritan has been studied from varieties of methodologies and perspectives, the mechanics of border markings – within the fictionality of border space – has generally escaped this study. Using social identity theory in this direction, the work probes the dynamics of group border markings in the characterization of this story – and the significance of this border polemics in the mapping of Luke-Acts. Consequently, the paper offers fresh perspectives to this popular parable in the different negotiations of border markings and the polemics of otherness in this story.
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    Daniel at the beauty pageant and Esther in the lion's den : literary intertextuality and shared motifs between the books of Daniel and Esther
    (Old Testament Society of South Africa, 2016) Michael, Matthew
    The present paper reads the books of Esther and Daniel as polemic writings of the Persian period which subtly seek to undermine the rhetoric of each other. Since the postexilic environment posed an enormous challenge to the Jewish identity, the great need to preserve this identity became a reoccurring motif in most postexilic compositions. Crystallizing this postexilic discourse, however, the books of Esther and Daniel propose two opposing attitudes to the problem of Jewish identity. While the book of Esther generally advocates the extreme adoption and even marriage to these foreign cultures, the book of Daniel particularly its narrative section (1-6) rejects this particular perspective, and largely promotes a defiant disposition towards the dominant culture. Through intertextual connections, the paper engages the various motifs in Esther, and notes also the subtle engagement and even subversion of these motifs in Daniel.
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    Jurgen Moltmann and the theology of the cross in the Johannine priestly prayer
    (Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Theology, 2015) Michael, Matthew
    Based on the cross-centred ecumenism of Moltmann, this article describes the problems of ecumenism among the churches of the global south. While acknowledging the paradigmatic shift in the centre of Christianity to these regions, it notes the problematic character of this shift for ecumenism especially in Africa. Situating Moltmann in discourse to the Johannine priestly prayer, it explicates some defining aspects of Moltmann’s cross-defined ecumenism for the African church. In this regard, the paper describes the problems as well as prospects that this christocentric mapping of Moltmann’s thought provides for the unity of the churches in Africa.
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    Patriarchal ethics and narrative representation : ethics, values and morality of the biblical narrator in the Jacob’s story
    (Pieter de Waal Neethling Trust, 2016) Michael, Matthew
    The patriarch narratives have continually become stories of ethical embarrassment to the modern readers because of the participation and support of the patriarchs for unethical practices which directly undermine the conception of these patriarchs as paragon of virtues and faith by later religious traditions. Implicated in the representations of the patriarchs are God and the narrator who largely distanced themselves, and also directly refused to make explicit moral condemnation of this unethical behaviour. Significantly, Yahweh persistently promises unconditional blessings and protections to these patriarchs in spite of their lying, deception, and cheating within the stories. To further reinstate this ethical dilemma, there are no divine thunderbolts, no wrathful confrontations or the outburst of divine holy anger that apparently addresses and punishes the moral flaws of these patriarchs. On this same ethical template, the narrator appears also sympathetic to the divine neglects of these unethical behaviours because in spite of these behaviours of the patriarchs and even matriarchs of his stories they were still largely considered the heroes and heroines of his stories. Departing from this general understanding of patriarchal ethics, the present study points to the subtle representation of Jacob’s deception of his father and the punishment of this misdeed through his direct connection and implication in three subsequent scenes of deception where he himself was the object of these deceptions. Through this placement of Jacob in these other scenes of deceptions, the narrator subtly presents a moral universe where ethical misdeed continually haunts the perpetrators, and wrong deeds are clearly punished. Consequently, in spite of the many moral problems in the patriarch narratives, the narrator skilfully upholds a high morality, and the paper appropriately underscores the ethical significance of this representation of Jacob’s story for the contemporary Christian community.
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    Saul's prophetic representations and Its parody in 1 Samuel
    (Old Testament Society of South Africa, Department of Ancient Languages, University of Pretoria, 2013) Michael, Matthew
    The paper engages the intrigue of Saul's description as a "prophetic figure" in the beginning of 1 Samuel and his description as the "patron" of witchcraft at Endor. In these conflicting representations of Saul, one of the hidden agenda of the narrator of Samuel is clearly achieved because he has successfully transformed a prophetic tradition which appears originally to attribute prophetic feats to the first Israelite king, and creatively turned the same tradition against itself by amusingly portraying the same character as the practitioner of witchcraft. Consequently, through the technique of parody, the original prophetic figure Saul is humorously no longer among the prophets, but now in consultation of a witch. In the continuum of ancient guidance, Saul's parody has come full circle because he is tragically moved from prophecy to divination/witchcraft.
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    Soundscape, Weeping Scenes and the Constructs of Resistance in Revelation 18
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2024-12) Michael, Matthew; Punt, Jeremy; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Old and New Testament.
    The dissertation engages the acoustic poetics of the book of Revelation by examining the strategic use of sounds as a subversive instrument of resistance in Revelation 18. It interrogates Revelation in the construct of its animated soundscape, and the lethal appropriation of this sensory space for its subversive polemics against Rome in the double ciphers of Babylon and the Prostitute. While past scholarship has generally ignored the central importance of weeping scenes in the study of Revelation, this dissertation underscores the acoustic poetics of the weeping scenes and the subversive deployment of city-laments for the purpose of resistance in Revelation 18. Using a sound-centred approach, it repositions the studies in Revelation, and apocalyptic literature in general for an interdisciplinary conversation with the emerging field of sound studies. Thus, the first chapter of the dissertation introduces the critical importance of soundscape and weeping scenes in the book of Revelation, the sound-driven hermeneutics, the research questions, the research scope and objectives respectively. Chapter Two examines the rhetorical character of weeping scenes in the book of Revelation in direct conversation with the sonic enthronement of the divine voice, the weaponised acoustics of its Christology, the sonic representation of a traumatised church, the aural operations of its punitive angels, the exploitative acoustics of its ecology, and the auditory character of its territorial spaces. Chapter Three focuses on Revelation 18 through its acoustic background, genre, literary environment, chiastic structure, the interactive character of the weeping voices, and the distinctive sonic features of Revelation 18 as an important weeping scene in the construct of a city-lament. In Revelation 18, we encounter the entire empire of Rome in mourning, and the vocal protest of its hegemonic control, powers and global order. In particular, the acoustics of this city-lament projects the defeat of God’s enemies whose cries in Revelation 18 resonate with the earlier cries of the martyrs, and fulfil their longing for vengeance (6:9-10 cf. 7:10; 8:2-3). Chapter Four describes the important acoustic devices in Revelation 18 which are creatively deployed to the task of resistance. In this site of great resistance, Revelation 18 presents subversively the loud acoustics of angelic protests, the polemics of dystopian sounds, the sonic attacks of boycotts, the alienating power of sonic sanctions, the acoustic design of mimicries, the polemic identities of submerged voices, and the sonic constructs of disability and animal sounds in cohesive attacks against Rome. In its resistance against the established order, the poetics of Revelation 18 harnessed the lethal character of lament that called defiantly for the destruction of the status quo, the birth of a new world, and the dramatic reordering of the present society. Lastly, Chapter Five concludes the findings of this dissertation which are primarily centred on the acoustic importance of weeping scenes in the book of Revelation, the lethal character of its soundscape as instrument of resistance, the polemic construct of Revelation 18 as a city-lament, the interactive symphony of Revelation 18, and its contribution to the acoustic agenda of apocalyptic literature.