When handling metaphor, some Romans, New Testament and Biblical studies scholarship, seeks it in the text and then tries to define it - make it proper; their property, or that of who they think is the proprietor. However, the definitions and language used to define and describe metaphor are actually within metaphor itself. Metaphor is often interpreted before it is interpreted. Expectations are made, and some aspects of the sense of a word or phrase are elided, pushed away or even rejected, whilst others are retained, welcomed or even celebrated. Whilst this loss and gain might be unconscious or indirect, its force is part of an insistent pattern of usure. However, just as every reservoir drained by a bell mouth causes a nearby river to throb, that which is oppressed or pushed away emerges elsewhere, unpredictably - withdrawal, or retrait, is also extension. In Romans, the role of the believer in the great eschatological project of God, and in their relationship to God, is one that some traditional interpretations seek to read as being very limited - often to a one-way process of transferral from God to human. Financial-economic, oleicultural and somatic metaphor are kept in check through the pattern of usure. But it can also be read against the grain. The methodology of usure-retrait, developed in this thesis from Derrida's "White Mythology" and "The Retrait of Metaphor", is used to read texts from Romans 4, 11 and 12 in a way that appreciates what is gained through metaphor, even if this gain goes against the apparent intention, or authorised meanings. The result of this study is an appreciation of the reciprocity, synergy, and mutuality, albeit asymmetrical, of the relationship between the believer and God. This leads to an assessment that their power, as well as their responsibility, is much greater than some interpretations would cede. They are active, and help shape, form and determine not only God's works, but God himself.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:632260 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Britton, Richard John |
| Publisher | University of Manchester |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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