(Re)Membering Young Children in the Gospel of Luke
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For Theirs is the Kingdom: (Re)membering Young Children in the Gospel of Luke By Amy Lindeman Allen Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Religion May, 2016 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Dr. Fernando Segovia Dr. Daniel Patte Dr. Bonnie Miller-McLemore Dr. Douglas Knight Dr. Jaco Hamman Date: March 14, 2016 i Copyright © 2016 by Amy Lindeman Allen All Rights Reserved ii To my children, Becca, Joanna, and William; To my god-children, Jake and Madeline; and To all the children of the congregations I’ve served—you have ministered to me far more than I could ever minister to you. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project is one that I could not have imagined six years ago. It is the result of so many influences and encouragements outside of myself and represents my growth, on account of these sources, as both a scholar and a pastor. I am profoundly grateful for all of the institutions and individuals that have helped guide me to this point. I could not have undertaken my work without the generous financial support of the Vanderbilt Graduate Department of Religion, its Theology and Practice Program, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. I am grateful for both the tangible and intangible resources afforded me by both of these institutions during my studies. The academic and personal support provided throughout my work by my advisor, Dr. Fernando Segovia, has been irreplaceable. I am deeply grateful for the example he has set as a scholar and activist, committed to imaging the Church and the world as a more inclusive and welcoming place for all people. Dr. Segovia has not only clarified for me the paradigms of biblical studies, but has helped me to see through and beyond these paradigms as I discern how and why I am reading the biblical texts. Consequently, despite Dr. Segovia’s renown as a post-colonial scholar, this dissertation does not employ the lens of post-colonial scholarship directly, but rather is marked by its principles, even as it follows a different path. For empowering me to seek this path of childist criticism, which connects most directly with my deep passions for inclusion and justice, I owe an additional debt of gratitude to Dr. Segovia. Moreover, through Dr. Segovia as my advisor I have been doubly blessed by the unwavering support and encouragement of his spouse and partner, Dr. Elena Olazagasti-Segovia. Her care and compassion for me as both a person and student has buoyed me through the natural struggles that come with the pursuit of a doctoral degree and modeled the supportive community of the Body of Christ that this project envisions. I am further thankful for all the members of my dissertation committee and my mentors in the Theology and Practice program. Dr. Douglas Knight has demonstrated for me the value of sociological and historical inquiry as I seek to learn from the past even as I read toward the future. Dr. Bonnie Miller-McLemore has been both an indispensible resource in learning the literature and language of childhood studies and an incredible mentor in the task of balancing my dual vocations of scholarship and motherhood in a way that I pray has been enriching to each. Dr. Daniel Patte has supported me in both my teaching and my scholarship and impressed upon me both the need to be clear on my own interpretive paradigm and the need for openness to the interpretations of others as I seek the most valuable reading for each contextual time and place. Dr. Ted Smith and Dr. Jaco Hamman have consistently helped me to believe in myself even when I was unsure of my path. They, together with the other faculty of the Theology and Practice program with whom I have had the pleasure to work in class—Dr. Stacey Floyd- Thomas, Prof. Trudy Hawkins Stringer, Dr. Melissa Snarr—have always kept me oriented on the gift that I hope my scholarship might bring to the institution of the Church. For the faculty at Columbia Theological Seminary, where I have been blessed to serve my teaching externship, I am sincerely grateful. My profound thanks go to Dr. Stanley Saunders for his direct mentorship, together with the collegial support and mentoring provided by Dean iv Deborah Mullen and the entire Bible Area faculty, especially Dr. Raj Nadella, Dr. Beth Johnson, and Dr. Christine Roy Yoder. I am also grateful for the collegial support and encouragement of all of the women connected with the Lutheran Women in Theological and Religious Studies group, which meets in conjunction with the Society of Biblical Literature and the spiritual foundations for this project provided by the National Association for the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, especially as provided by my formation leaders, Joanne Williams and Elizabeth Piper. And for so many other scholars and ministers who have helped me to grow in my scholarship whose names are too many to list. Finally, I am grateful to my family for their steadfast patience, encouragement, and support. My parents, Bonnie and Roland Lindeman, and my brother, Tony, have affirmed for me ever since I was a small child that my place, and that of all people regardless of age or any other distinction is important and valuable to Christ in His Church. They paved the foundation for this childist project long before it was ever conceived. And they, together with my grandparents, Roger and Joanne Stecker, have continued to encourage me in its completion along every step of the way. My husband, Erik, possesses more confidence in me than I have in myself. He has faithfully walked alongside me at every step of this process, even when we didn’t know where the next step would lead. His hard-work, patience, and love have enabled me to pursue my passion. And, of course, my children, Becca, Joanna, and William are the reason for my passion and my work. They have at the same time inspired me to make the church more welcoming and accessible for them, taught me what welcome in the name of Christ really is, and been patient and supportive of me as I completed my writing project. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION............................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................................................................................... iv ABBREVIATIONS…………………………………………...……………………………….…ix Chapter 1. Backgrounds to a Childist Reading of Luke………………...……………………………....1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………..2 Children in the Bible and Antiquity: A Theoretical and Historical Framework………………..7 Philippe Ariès and the Formal Study of Childhood…………………………………………8 The Development of Childhood Studies…………………………………………………...12 Child Centered Approaches to Biblical Criticism………………………………………....15 Children in Metaphors in New Testament Literature…………………………………..16 Children as Characters in New Testament Literature…………………………………..25 Child-Centered Approaches to the Hebrew Bible……………………………………...33 Conclusion……………...…………………………………………………………………38 Approaching Luke’s Gospel Account: A Theoretical and Methodological Framework……..40 Reading Within a Rhetorical Emancipatory Paradigm……………………………………40 Conscientization and Critique of Luke’s Gospel and its Received Tradition……………..43 A Childist Lens for (Re)Construction and (Re)Imagination…………………………..…..45 The Child Theology Movement………………………………………………………..46 Childism………………………………………………………………………………..50 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….………..56 Children in Luke’s Gospel: A Linguistic and Contextual Framework……………………….57 Life Transitions between Childhood and Adulthood……………………………………...59 Physical Maturity……………………………………………………………………....61 Marriage and Civil Service…………………………………………………………….63 Work…………………………………………………………………………………...67 Words that Designate Children and Youth………………………………………………..70 βρέφος………………………………………………………………………………....71 παιδίον, παῖς…………………………………………………………………………...73 νεανίσκος, νεανίας, νεᾶνις.............................................................................................76 τέκνον, υἱός, θυγάτηρ....................................................................................................79 µικρός, νέος...................................................................................................................81 Conclusion: Social Concepts of Children and Childhood in Luke (The Messy Middle)..82 Conclusion: (Re)Claiming a Subject Oriented Biblical Childhood..........................................83 2. Young Children in the Household of God.............................................................................85 Introduction...............................................................................................................................85 Welcome and Inclusion in 1st Century Palestine and Surrounding Cultures…………………88 vi Welcome and Celebration of Infants in the Greco-Roman World………………………..89 Presence of Children in the Public and Religious Sphere……………………………...…91 Welcome and Inclusion in Luke 9:47-50 and 18:15-17………………………………………99 Luke 9:47-50………………………………….………….……………………………….99 Luke 18:15-17……………………………………………..…………………………….104 Welcome and Inclusion to as Alluded to Throughout Luke’s Narrative................................114 Welcome and Celebration of Infants as Experienced in Luke 1-2....................................115 Invisible Presence of Children Throughout Jesus’ Adult Ministry...................................123 Children in the Home (οἴκος)......................................................................................124