Kingdom of bureaucracy
Subtitle: the political theology of village scribes in the Sayings Gospel Q
By: by Giovanni B. Bazzana
Series: Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium -- 274; Bibliotheca Ephemeridum theologicarum Lovaniensium -- 274.
Publisher: Peeters
Published: 2015
Place of publication: Leuven
Language: eng
Number of pages: 383
ISBN-13: 9789042931787
Copyright date: 2015
Subjects: Q hypothesis (Synoptics criticism); Political theology; History
Other titles: Political theology of village scribes in the Sayings Gospel Q
Description: The Sayings Gospel Q was composed in the central decades of the first century CE by Galilean villagers who had acquired knowledge of Greek mostly through their involvement with the public administration. The present book analyzes the text of Q in order to rediscover the terminological and ideological traces of the activity of these sub-elite scribes in the Sayings Gospel. Given the bureaucratic positions occupied by the members of this group, the peculiar use of the phrase "Basileia tou theou" carries a specific significance for its theological political implications. On the basis of Giorgio Agamben's recent revision of the category of political theology, the attitude of Q on divine kingship is understood as an instance of sub-elite negotiation of social and political positions vis-a-vis the expansion of Roman imperial hegemony in the eastern Mediterranean. In this context the author(s) of Q envisage apocalyptic scenarios in which divine kingship replaces human rulers and native sub-elite bureaucrats can share in the exercise of cosmic government.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 331-358) and indexes.