The Persuasion Tactic of Hospitality in the Letter to Philemon

• Main Authors: LIN, GUAN-HONG, 林冠宏
• Other Authors: GOH, MENG-HUN
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2019
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/ypwrtt

碩士 === 台灣神學研究學院 === 神學研究道學碩士班 === 107 === This thesis argues that “hospitality” is Paul’s exhortative approach in the Letter to Philemon. Hospitality was the custom of the time, but Paul, as the prisoner of Christ Jesus, transformed it into a persuasive tactic. In this tactic, Paul attempts to renew Philemon’s view on Onesimus, which is a fixed, formulaic, and dominating view, that is, a perspective towards a slave. This kind of view also appears in biblical scholars’ interpretations of the social identity of Onesimus. While most biblical scholars admit that the view that “Onesimus is a slave” is without (inner) textual support, they still ground their interpretations based on this view. However, it is precisely through the tactic of hospitality that Paul challenges such a fixed view towards Onesimus, because hospitality is about receiving and welcoming foreigners, strangers, and the others. It is a risky lifestyle, and it is this adventurous character of hospitality that can transform Philemon’s view of Onesimus, making him receive Onesimus with a renewed perspective. Such a transformative effect of hospitality reminds readers not to interpret the Christian Bible and not to address conflicts with a fixed perspective. To highlight the (re)production of this fixed perspective, this thesis uses the notion of discourse in Edward W. Said’s Orientalism and semiotics to show why hospitality can be a practical tactic to renew one’s fixed perspective. In terms of interpretive process, this thesis does not impose the notion of “discourse” onto our textual analysis. Rather, the textual analysis foregrounds how the machine of “discourse” frames, polices, and justifies our (fixed) perspective.