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Re-Presenting the Johannine Community: A Postcolonial Perspective explores the characterization of the Johannine community in the Farewell Discourse of the Fourth Gospel from a postcolonial perspective. The community is scrutinized with the lens of an integrated literary-rhetorical and ideological-postcolonial approach. The disciples emerge as both the «Self», insofar as they resist an imperial reality represented by the «world», and the «Other», with respect to Jesus and the Father. As such, far from immutable and bland, the Johannine community is portrayed as chameleonic and engaged in an emerging strategy of resistance.
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«This volume will be particularly attractive to those interested in cross-cultural and interdisciplinary exchanges. Drawing profitably on postcolonial and literary-rhetorical analysis, Tan Yak-hwee situates the Johannine community in its imperial context and pays attention to issues posed by the Roman occupation - representation, identity, and power. Her reading of the Johannine Farewell Discourse is one of the most innovative and nuanced interventions to emerge recently. This book is an excellent addition to the ever-growing literature on postcolonial biblical criticism, and, more specifically, required reading for those interested in Johannine studies.» (R. S. Sugirtharajah, Professor of Biblical Hermeneutics, School of Historical Studies, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom)
«By means of this book, Tan Yak-hwee establishes herself as an important postcolonial biblical scholar. She elucidates carefully the colonial ideology of John's Gospel and points to a vision of resistance of the Johannine community. Cogently argued and clearly written, the book will be indispensable for biblical scholars, seminarians, and others interested in postcolonial criticism.» (Kwok Pui-lan, William F. Cole Professor of Christian Theology and Spirituality, Episcopal Divinity School, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Author, 'Postcolonial Imagination and Feminist Theology')
