Demetrius K. Williams
I have read a number of books on Paul’s Letter to Philemon and even reviewed a few recent studies, which tended to restrain my expectations when I first began reading Stephen E. Young’s Our Brother Beloved. My assessment changed almost immediately, before I even finished the introductory chapter. It was clear to me that I had picked up a book that would provide a new and noteworthy rereading of Paul’s shortest letter and, perhaps, the most historically consequential of his letters in America. To be sure, this brief dispatch has been used oppressively to support and affirm slavery and the prerogatives of empire in both their ancient and modern manifestations. Young’s erudite study departs from previous offerings, on the one hand, by significantly widening the interpretive circle, inviting the voices and concerns of feminists and minoritized biblical interpreters. At the same time, he mines traditional methods and scholarship on the text. But he also, on the other hand, deftly weaves together these various methodological approaches, the most important of which for his study is Positioning Theory, into a fresh interpretive tour de force. In the final analysis, his interpretation presents Philemon as a countercultural source for change in response to systems of oppression, allowing this misused letter to speak powerfully to the church today.
Carolyn Osiek
Paul’s letter to Philemon has long been a troublesome reminder of social inequities and yet the possibility of transformed relationships. With careful review of a text fraught with ambiguities and a long history of interpretation, Stephen E. Young weaves his way deftly through multiple and multivalent interpretations. In search of a responsible way to make the text meaningful in the contemporary context, he employs Positioning Theory to demonstrate anew the power of the text for the challenge of resetting relationships.
Philip Esler
Stephen E. Young convincingly interprets Paul’s letter to Philemon as creating an alternative Christian moral order that challenges the very foundation of slavery. The book is characterized by a compelling combination of the fresh perspective of Positioning Theory and the most meticulous exegesis. It is a model of social-scientific interpretation and of its capacity to free Philemon from its pro-slavery misinterpretations in the past and to provoke liberative and inclusive understanding in the present.
