Imagining Jesus in His Own Culture
Creating Scenarios of the Gospel for Contemplative Prayer
Foreword by Douglas E. Oakman
Imprint: Cascade Books
Every disciple imagines Jesus; reading the Gospels we form images of him and of his surroundings. This has been constant practice for those who desire to know him more clearly. We, however, borrow stuff--from stained glass windows, book illustrations, and the like--which is always familiar to us, but which reflects our, not his, culture. This book invites readers to construct different scenarios about Jesus and his world from the study of his ancient culture.
We do this with accuracy because of the advance of cultural studies of his and our worlds. Jesus should look different (wear different clothing, experience different grooming), in settings foreign to us (in houses and boats from his own world). Jesus should speak differently so that the meaning of his words can only be known in his culture.
In this book readers travel through the Gospels with specific suggestions about what to see, namely, Jesus in his cultural world. Imagining Jesus also suggests how to listen to him in his cultural language. Did Jesus laugh? How did he pray? This is what the incarnation means: imagining Jesus socialized in a particular culture, at a time foreign to us and in a language strange to us.
Jerome Neyrey, a Jesuit priest, focused his scholarship on the New Testament, but in terms of its distinctive culture. Hence he studied ancient rhetoric and read lots of anthropology. His favorite mantra, “in other words,” was his GPS for the letters of Paul and the Gospels. Despite his Yale PhD, he continued his schooling, but in association with like-minded comrades within the Context Group. His articles appear in scholarly journals, and leading presses have published his books.
“An experienced biblical scholar and Ignatian retreat director, Neyrey deftly integrates what we can know of the historical Jesus as he speaks and acts in his own context, with the time-tested structure of the spiritual exercises. This book, the result of years of biblical research and experience of the exercises, produces a very new approach for today’s readers who would come to know the real Jesus better in their lives.”
—Carolyn Osiek, Professor, Brite Divinity School
“Engaging use of the famous Ignatian spiritual exercises is employed to imagine Jesus and his teaching rooted in a first-century Mediterranean context. Lucid, vivid writing with generous textual and cultural illustrations transports the general reader to the turf and culture and ‘imaginative everyday scenarios’ of earliest Christianity. Here is vintage Neyrey the master teacher and exegetical guide at his instructive—and pastoral—best.”
—John H. Elliott, Professor, University of San Francisco
“‘By combining St. Ignatius’s contemplative prayers with an historical study of Jesus in the Gospels, Neyrey reaches an extraordinary achievement. He brings us into the foreign culture of Jesus, but strangely enough, at the same time he makes Jesus more familiar to us. This makes reading the book a unique and uplifting experience.”
—Halvor Moxnes, Professor, University of Oslo, Norway
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