Anyone attempting to engage Latin Americaâs contributions to the field of biblical studies for the last fifty years cannot avoid the prolific scholarship of José Severino Croatto. His hermeneutical lens reflects a liberationist ârereadingâ strategy that ethically aims to privilege the lived experiences of oppressed and disenfranchised peoples of the world. Much of Croattoâs liberationist gaze focused on the Isaianic version of Israelâs âfoundingâ message. Here, he oscillates between social critic and biblical exegete in a way that gives his rereading relevant specificity. As a case study into Croattoâs rereading of the materiality of empire in Isaiah, this essay interrogates his exegesis of empire in Isaiah 47 in order to better understand Croattoâs social critique of modern empire. In the end, Croattoâs assessment of empire has as its primary ethical concern the experiences of the oppressed people of Latin America. This explicit social obligation requires that he distill and sustain in full view the materiality of empire inscribed in Second Isaiahâs rhetoric. To achieve this, he harnesses a âsociopolÃticoâ meaning within the text in such way that he makes accessible a theological rhetoric for critiquing the contemporary reality of empire.â©
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Fernando A. Cascante, âStrengthening Bible Institutes and Church Leadership: A Partnership to Develop a Viable Certification Process,â Colloquy 20 (Spring 2012), pp. 24â25. According to a 2011 Pew Hispanic study, between 2000 and 2010 the growth of the Latino population represented 56% of the population growth in the U.S.A., growing at a faster pace than the general population. See Flávia Cristina Drumond Andrade, âOverview,â in Jaqueline L. Angel, Fernando Torres Gil, and Kyriakos Markides (eds.), Aging, Health, and Longevity in the Mexican-Origin Population (New York, NY: Springer, 2012), p. 186.
J. Severino Croatto, Biblical Hermeneutics: Toward a Theory of Reading as the Production of Meaning (trans. Robert R. Barr; New York: Orbis Books, 1987), p. 40. See also Croatto, IsaÃas, Vol. 2, p. 20; J. Severino Croatto, â Latin America,â in Virginia Fabella and R.S. Sugirtharajah (eds.), The SCM Dictionary of Third World Theologies (London: SCM Press, 2003), p. 25); J. Severino Croatto, âExegesis of Second Isaiah from the Perspective of the Oppressed,â in Fernando F. Segovia and Mary Ann Tolbert (eds.), Reading from This Place, Vol. 2: Social Location and Biblical Interpretation in Global Perspective (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995), p. 220.
Croatto, âThe Function of the Non-fulfilled Promises,â p. 38.
Croatto, âInequity as Iniquity: Searching the Roots of Hunger in Isaiah,â p. 44.
Croatto, âInequity as Iniquity: Searching the Roots of Hunger in Isaiah,â p. 69.
Croatto, âIsaiah 40â55,â in Global Bible Commentary, p. 196.
Klaus Baltzer, Deutero-Isaiah, p. 27. For further discussion on sanguine assessments of the Babylonian exile, see Daniel L. Smith-Christopher, A Biblical Theology of Exile (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2002), pp. 27â74.
Roy F Melugin, The Formation of Isaiah 40â55 (New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1976), pp. 135â36; Claus Westermann, Isaiah 40â66: A Commentary (Philadelphia, PA: Westminster Press, 1969), p. 187.
See Goldstone and Haldon, âAncient States, Empires, and Exploitation,â pp. 1â29; Peter R. Bedford, âThe Neo-Assyrian Empire,â in Morris and Scheidel (eds.), Dynamics of Ancient Empire, p. 35; and Scheidel, âSex and Empire: A Darwinian Perspective,â pp. 258â57.
Walter Brueggemann, Isaiah: 40â66 (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998), p. 96.
Walter Brueggemann, Isaiah: 40â66 (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998), p. p. 159.
Goldstone and Haldon, âAncient States, Empires, and Exploitation,â pp. 18â19.
See verse 1 and verse 5; ibid., p. 166.
Eugene Walker Gogol, The Concept of Other in Latin American Liberation: Fusing Emancipatory Philosophic Thought and Social Revolt (Oxford, UK: Lexington Books, 2002), p. 24; see also Javier Corrales, âNeoliberalism and Its Alternativesâ in Peter Kingstone and Deborah J. Yashar (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Latin American Politics (New York, NY: Routledge, 2012), p. 138.
Croatto, âThe Function of the Non-Fulfilled Promises,â p. 38.
Brueggemann, Isaiah 40â66, p. 98; Croatto, Biblical Hermeneutics, p. 50.
Walter Brueggemann, Out of Babylon (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2010), pp. 126â27.
J. Severino Croatto, âInequity is Iniquity: Raising Prophetic Voices Against US-Led Globalization,â Hospitality 22 (2003), pp. 1, 10.
Croatto, âInequity as Iniquity: Searching the Roots of Hunger in Isaiah,â p. 65.
Junan Gonzalez, Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America (New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2011), p. xviii.
J. Severino Croatto, â¿Como releer la biblia desde su contexto socio-polÃtico?: Ejercicio sobre algunos temas del Pentateuco,â Revista BÃblica 44 (1991), pp. 193â212 (235).
Elisabeth Shüssler Fiorenza, Democratizing Biblical Studies: Toward an Emancipatory Educational Space (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Know Press, 2009), p. 36.
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Anyone attempting to engage Latin Americaâs contributions to the field of biblical studies for the last fifty years cannot avoid the prolific scholarship of José Severino Croatto. His hermeneutical lens reflects a liberationist ârereadingâ strategy that ethically aims to privilege the lived experiences of oppressed and disenfranchised peoples of the world. Much of Croattoâs liberationist gaze focused on the Isaianic version of Israelâs âfoundingâ message. Here, he oscillates between social critic and biblical exegete in a way that gives his rereading relevant specificity. As a case study into Croattoâs rereading of the materiality of empire in Isaiah, this essay interrogates his exegesis of empire in Isaiah 47 in order to better understand Croattoâs social critique of modern empire. In the end, Croattoâs assessment of empire has as its primary ethical concern the experiences of the oppressed people of Latin America. This explicit social obligation requires that he distill and sustain in full view the materiality of empire inscribed in Second Isaiahâs rhetoric. To achieve this, he harnesses a âsociopolÃticoâ meaning within the text in such way that he makes accessible a theological rhetoric for critiquing the contemporary reality of empire.â©
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 401 | 66 | 6 |
| Full Text Views | 250 | 2 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 106 | 3 | 0 |