The Body of Jesus

A Spatial Analysis of the Kingdom in Matthew

Patrick Schreiner

• Éditeur: T&T Clark
• Année: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780567669681
• Édition: 1
• Sujet: Theology & Religion
• Sous-sujet: Biblical Criticism & Interpretation

Little attention is usually given to the space or place of the kingdom. Yet Matthew employs the distinctive phrase "kingdom of heaven" and also portrays Jesus as Immanuel (God with us). In this volume Patrick Schreiner argues that by expanding one's view of space one can see that Jesus' purpose is to reorder the space of the earth in Matthew as the heavenly king. Jesus pierces the barrier between the two realms in his incarnation, and the spaces of heaven and earth begin to collide in his ministry. Therefore, in Matthew, Jesus does not just promise a temporal or ethereal kingdom, but one that is located, one that has a sense of rootedness. Jesus is granted authority over this space and inspires people to follow him in this construction project. The spatial kingdom begins in his body, and he extends it to his church by promising his presence.

Part 1

SPACE: THE FINAL FRONTIER

Chapter 1

THE ECLIPSE OF SPACE

The View From Nowhere

A 1562 second edition of the Geneva Bible famously rendered Mt. 5:9 as “Blessed are the placemakers.” Although it was an error, the mistake inadvertently points to an important idea—the reality of spatial themes in Matthew.1 Spatial studies are gaining popularity across the disciplines, but scholarship regarding the kingdom has been prone to neglect the spatial dimension. Usually, studies on the kingdom concentrate on two interrelated focuses. They emphasize the kingdom as God’s rule, and stress the temporal question. Little attention is given to the “where” or “space” of the kingdom. Some admit the kingdom includes spatial aspects, but an investigation of the spatial nature has been neglected.2 This project will employ a spatial hermeneutic on the kingdom in Matthew.3

The neglect of spatial considerations concerning the kingdom can be traced to at least four factors.4 First, because the kingdom has been defined as God’s dynamic rule. The dynamic sense has been the leading view since Gustaf Dalman’s study Die Worte Jesu in 1898.5 George Eldon Ladd popularized this view in his numerous works on the kingdom, arguing that the abstract idea is the primary meaning.6 Even dictionaries have followed suit.7 However, Ladd’s conception of the kingdom must be understood in its historical and geographical context. For Ladd was, at least in part, reacting to dispensationalism with its focus on land, and therefore was prone to downplay the “place” or “space” feature.8 Although more people are dissenting to Ladd’s circumscribed view of the kingdom,9 the supremacy of Dalman and Ladd’s definition is still prevalent.10 I. Howard Marshall said concerning the kingdom, “While it has been emphasized almost ad nauseam that the primary concept is that of the sovereignty of kingship or actual rule of God and not of a territory ruled by a king, it must also be emphasized that kingship cannot be exercised in the abstract.”11

Second, the space and place facet has been ignored because time has conquered space in the modern era and left it in chains of irrelevance.12 With faster modes of transportation and communication time swallows up place and space.13 Although time and space are allied, time tends to supplant the spatial component because time is more measurable. The sociologist Anthony Giddens argues that history and time began to be emphasized over geography and space when the mechanical clock became widely available at the end of the eighteenth century.14 Edward Casey, professor of philosophy, asserts that time has become dominant with everything else being subjacent to it “beginning with place and ending with space.”15 The phrase “time will tell” is not only what we say in the modern era, but also what we believe. But whenever we think of time as a string-like succession, we spatialize it.16 Even the temporal language of being “before” and “after” invokes spatial distinctions. The long temporal fingers have reached their way into New Testament studies as noted in the dominant temporal categories directing kingdom studies. Eric Stewart even asserts, “Nowhere is the privileging of time over space more apparent than in New Testament studies.”17

However, space is integral to temporal understandings. Although space has become the given, and time the variable in the equation, both need to be fleshed out to get a full-orbed picture of the kingdom. Yi-Fu Tuan rightly asks, “If people lack a sense of clearly articulated space, will they have a sense of clearly articulated time?”18 Although the twin towers of time and space can be separated in the abstract, in reality they are interwoven.19 Doreen Massey, a geographer and social scientist, argues they are integral to one another and that for time to be open, space must be in some sense be open too.20 Time has been central to kingdom studies for over a century. It appears justified that a spatial lens will open new roads to travel.

Third, the space of the kingdom has been ignored because of the influence of Platonic dualism.21 Plato divided the world between the “ideas/forms” and the material world. The material world, according to Plato, is not the real world but only an image or copy of the real world. In this conception, both the physical land and people’s bodies become unimportant. This view has been remarkably influential throughout the history of Christian thought through the influence of Philo. Although alterations to this view are making progress, sometimes materiality is still disparaged in Christianity.22 If one asserts the importance of materialism, then both bodies and space become important. As Paul Tournier says, “Man is not a pure spirit, and he has part in the places in which he has lived and experienced joy and sadness. He is bound up with matter, with things, with the ground he lives on. Our place is our link to the world.”23At the intersection of body and earth place begins to materialize. Being embodied creatures means that humans are also “implaced” creatures, rooted creatures.24 One must always be somewhere. Reflections on the kingdom have also been prone to neglect the body’s affiliation with the kingdom.25 If the Platonic dualism is broken, then space and bodies suddenly become significant.

Finally, neglect of spatial notions stems from constricted views of space and place. Space has been thought of too narrowly, as extrinsic to human beings. Most view it either as a Newtonian or Galilean absolute concept, or as a static physical representation.26 Because of the influence of both Newton and Galileo, space is thought of as closed, stopped up, unchanging, and lifeless. Humanistic geographers have called this view “spatial separatism.” Spatial separatism approaches space as autonomous from social processes.27 In the language of Charles Taylor, the cosmos is now viewed as buffered or closed.28 But what if space is porous and open? What if it is moldable and has a transcendent, enchanted, and legendary purpose? What if it is not de-sacramentalized, but sacramentalized?29 The tendency remains to view humanity as adrift in a cold unenergized cosmos. This “coldness” is grasped when one considers the concepts that arise when space/place are invoked. To be placed does not only imply geographical locations, but physical locations represent social, ideological, and mental places, or places of identity. For biblical studies, “space” triggers either the land in the Old Testament or the reconstitution of national Israel.30 Both concern either the past or the future with little “enchantment” in the present. What if space affects everyday existence and human beings affect space? Michel Foucault was one of the pioneers in reasserting a more complex view of space. He says, “Space was treated as the dead, the fixed, the undialectical, the immobile. Time, on the contrary was richness, fecundity, life.”31 Foucault did not understand why time was infused with agency and societal development, while geography and space were considered lifeless and dead. Why was history socially produced and not space? Christopher Tilly offers a summary of how space has become “nothingness” in our thought processes.

Such a view of space de-centered it from agency and meaning. It was something that could be objectively measured in terms of an abstracted geometry of scale. Space was quite literally a nothingness, a simple surface for action, lacking depth. This space was universal and everywhere and anywhere the same, and had cross-cultural impact on people and society […] Space as container, surface and volume was substantial inasmuch as it existed in itself and for itself, external to and indifferent to human affairs. The neutrality of this space resulted in its being divorced from any consideration of structures of power and domination.32

Therefore because of (1) the primary emphasis on dynamic rule, (2) the dominance of time in New Testament studies, (3) a dualistic tension still residing in Christianity, and (4) constricted views of space, the spatial aspects of the kingdom have been deserted. If discussed at all, the realm aspect is usually relegated to a future inheritance, or an acknowledgment that the king must have a domain over which to reign.33 Biblical theologians do note the land theme running across Scripture, but they usually have little to say when they come to the Gospels. So, how does one tie the space of the kingdom to Jesus’ ministry? My goal is to help readers see the magnitude of kingdom space in Jesus’ ministry and the conferral of a spatial mission to his community. In this way, I propose a different perspective on the kingdom than usually presented. The focus on Jesus’ ministry is intentional, for although the Gospels culminate in the death and resurrection of Jesus, they still spend a vast amount of limited papyrus space on his ministry.34 The basic...

Table des matières

• Library of New Testament Studies
• Dedication
• Title
• Contents 
• List of Tables
• List of Figures
• Preface
• Foreword by Jonathan T. Pennington
• Abbreviations
• Part 1 Space: The Final Frontier
• Chapter 1 The Eclipse of Space
• Chapter 2 The Presence of Jesus and The Spatial Kingdom
• Chapter 3 Spatial Theory
• Part 2 Jesus vs. Beelzebul
• Chapter 4 Lord of Heaven and Earth
• Chapter 5 If by The Spirit: The Spirit, The Spatial Kingdom, and The New Exodus
• Part 3 World-Building with Words
• Chapter 6 Salt, Light, Dust, and Fields
• Chapter 7 The Meek Community and The Temple
• Part 4 People, Presence, and Place
• Chapter 8 A New World and The Community
• Chapter 9 The Kingdom as Thirdspace
• Bibliography
• Index of Authors
• Index of Scriptures
• Copyright