Compassion - the essence of life : a social-scientific study of the religious symbolic universe reflected in the ideology/theology of Luke

Abstract

In this book Pieter van Staden considers the view that in the Lukan narrative world the protagonist, Jesus, advocated an ideology/theology that was reflective in nature with regard to a concept of God who is typified as having compassion with the socially destitude. This ideological perspective on the part of the narrator is interpreted social-scientifically by making use of a conflict theory, since it can be contrasted with the perspective of the Pharisees as the antagonists in the story. The conflict with regard to ideology/theology is understood in terms of core values: inclusivity as against exclusivity; sympathy as a result of boundless compassion, as against narrow-minded purifying ceremonies and discriminatory perfectionistic legalities, causing social (i e familial, political, economic and religious) ostracism of people, things and places that could not be categorised as 'whole' or 'without blemish'. The three mealtime pericopes in Luke 14 have been selected as illustrative material because they suggest exclusion based on purity lines, occur in a framework of dispute, and communicate the opposing ideologies of Jesus and the Pharisees respectively. The author considers that there was an elite group of people in the Lucan community, who thought and acted like the Pharisees at the time of the historical Jesus. The narrator does not call on these elite people to abandon their social positions, but they should use their positions of authority to fulfil a paradoxical role, like Jesus himself, showing compassion towards the non-elites; this would have particular reference to the socially ostracised both inside and outside Judaism.