In this ambitious volume, Johnson, Noel, and Williams assemble seven essays from biblical scholars and theologians. Taken collectively, the essays have a single purpose: to read Paul's short and controversial letter to Philemon in conversation with other Pauline letters and through “the political economy of modern slavery” (159). For the past fifteen centuries, Philemon traditionally has been interpreted as Paul's delicate handling of a runaway slave, Onesimus, whom Paul returns to his owner, Philemon, with ambiguous instructions. The essay writers challenge this interpretation through their use of African American biblical criticism and their placing of Onesimus at the center of discussion (5–7). Ideological criticism, within which African American biblical criticism, feminist criticism, and postcolonial criticism lie (to name three examples), has become more prevalent in recent decades, as the publication of scholarly books and the proliferation of Society of Biblical Literature sessions featuring these perspectives indicates. Thus the book would be a welcome addition to any library as an example of this particular type of reading strategy.
If the book has one weakness, it is the lack of transparency in some essays regarding how controversial this reading strategy is. Williams's history of interpretation essay is clear regarding the distinctions between the common runaway slave interpretation of Philemon and his own suggestion (based on Allan Callahan's work) that Onesimus and Philemon are brothers, and James Perkinson also acknowledges his debt to Callahan in his own work on antebellum interpretation. Margaret Wilkerson, however, assumes Onesimus is no longer a slave, without providing a single supporting citation or footnote.
The unevenness here suggests that the book should be used with intentionality. While Fortress Press classifies the book as religion/New Testament, four of the authors, including Perkinson and Wilkerson, are not New Testament scholars. Additionally, Noel's, Johnson's, and Perkinson's essays are heavy with postmodern theory, including discussions of white normativity, Otherness, psychological analysis of hysteria, and stereotype theory. These are not easy concepts, so they should be handed out in small doses, perhaps by assigning only one essay from the book. But whichever essay is chosen, any of the essays will introduce students to the ways in which theologians use biblical scholarship, to contemporary biblical exegesis, and/or to how the histories of US race relations have influenced and continue to influence the interpretation of Philemon. As such, the book is useful for anyone teaching a course on Paul, biblical methodology, or contemporary theology.
