The Silencing of Slaves in Early Jewish and Christian Texts

Rezensionen / Stimmen

"Ronald Charles is an important voice in the study of early Christian slavery. A postcolonial historian of antiquity, he situates his investigation of slave characters in Jewish and Christian writings in the theoretical context of subaltern studies. Instead of perpetuating grand narratives, he deliberately concentrates on small tales. Attentive to the voices of ancient slaves and the silences of modern historians and theologians, Charles joins the chorus of those who insist we finally hear the voices of those who cry for justice on behalf of those they love." - Jennifer Glancy, Le Moyne College, USA

"I can only echo Charles's urgent call to biblical scholars to pay very close attention to the literary functions and historical contexts in which slaves are mentioned in our sources. As this book amply proves, doing so yields truly important insights, both historically and theologically... Charles's work has indeed created significant new knowledge, and in many cases it also establishes convincing redundancy for scholarly conclusions that have been reached earlier."
- S. Scott Bartchy, Review of Biblical Literature

"Every attempt to unearth the destinies of slaves like Euclia, is an important, meaningful endeavor. [...] I applaud Ronald Charles' aspiration to enlarge our knowledge of slavery in early Jewish and early Christian literature."-Martijn Stoutjesdijk, Tilburg University, NTT Journal for Theology and the Study of Religion