New Testament Space/Spatiality

Abstract

This Readers Guide introduces biblical interpreters to the use of spatial theory as it is applied to biblical texts. Modern geographers, anthropologists, and sociologists understand space to consist of the physical world in which people exist, the ideological underpinnings of understanding places as designated for certain activities while restricting other activities, and the lived practices of people within those places that sometimes challenge and sometimes reaffirm the expected uses of such places. Biblical scholars have only recently begun to consider how space fits into an analysis of the texts with which they are interested. These scholars use spatial theory to analyze the spaces of the Roman Empire and how Jesus and his early followers fit within those spaces, in some cases contesting dominant meanings and practices, while in other cases adopting the dominant spatial practices of their cultural contexts.