Rob (Robert) Stegmann | University of Stellenbosch (original) (raw)
Books by Rob (Robert) Stegmann
Contested Masculinities: Polysemy and Gender in 1 Thessalonians, 2020
In Contested Masculinities, the author argues for the importance of critical consciousness, and a... more In Contested Masculinities, the author argues for the importance of critical consciousness, and attentiveness to the interplay of the biblical text, context and the long, complex, histories of interpretation that play out in the construction of masculinities. Locating his reading of 1 Thessalonians within the thickly textured setting of a postcolonial, post-apartheid South Africa, the author seeks to recontextualize Paul, providing a nuanced understanding of how Paul’s letters exercise authority over both the church and the academy. The author maintains that attempts to frame either the biblical text or notions of masculinity as singular and universal perpetuate and reinforce binary formulations (church/academy, global north/global south, colonizer/colonized, male/female) and entrench hierarchies of power. The author re-reads 1 Thessalonians, exploring the fissures that come into view when training a postcolonial and gender-critical lens on the biblical text and delivers a refreshing account that is playful and open and porous, especially as a conversational piece for masculinity, ancient and contemporary.
Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies, 2014
Papers by Rob (Robert) Stegmann
Journal of Youth and Theology, 2007
While the Bible continues to fund the religious imagination of the community of faith, the church... more While the Bible continues to fund the religious imagination of the community of faith, the church has often been found guilty of reading the Bible oppressively. Such readings emerge because of a general ignorance of the layered traditions that reflect diverse social locations, and a complex transmission and interpretive history. This essay is particularly concerned with reading practices which both remains faithful to ancient biblical contexts, as well as to how gender identity, as a fluid construct, is continually negotiated in post-apartheid South Africa. By employing postcolonial optics, this paper hopes to re-imagine gendered identity in a post-apartheid South Africa.
This paper seeks to explore the nature of well-being by considering Luke 8.40-56 from an interdis... more This paper seeks to explore the nature of well-being by considering Luke 8.40-56 from an interdisciplinary perspective. Drawing a socio-rhetorical analysis of this passage together with a more broadly social-scientific approach, this paper hopes to enrich our reading of the juxtaposed healing of Jairus’ daughter and the haemorrhaging woman by reflecting on how this episode re-imagines what is meant by well-being. What emerges from our analysis, is a thick reading of this healing text that invites a more integrated and holistic understanding of well-being. Our approach acknowledges the multilayered nature of the text and seeks to draw into conversation the insights of the social sciences in order to appropriate the text in ways that pay careful attention to the issues of power, marginalisation, exclusion, political and religious hegemony in relation to women and children. In so doing, the paper considers how this text can be read with ordinary/pre-critical readers—especially those who are economically and socially marginalised—as a text that not only speaks to the issue of well-being, but serves to empower and facilitate well-being and healing.
Israel’s wisdom tradition reflects a profound and beautiful breadth in its ability to bring a wid... more Israel’s wisdom tradition reflects a profound and beautiful breadth in its ability to bring a wide range of lived experience to speech within an intentionally theological framework. Such breadth is evidenced in the number of genres, the variety of rhetorical devices employed in the tradition, and the use of existing source materials. All this suggests that this literature is both porous—allowing for a kind of literary freedom of ideas—and responsive to the existential realities of life. It is my contention that Israel’s wisdom tradition exemplifies a theological flexibility that allows it to draw on the rich wisdom that emerges from individual and communal reflection upon lived experiences. At the same time, the wisdom tradition also reflects a tendency towards theological certitude whereby some voices were silenced and others amplified in the service of those who exercised power. This rich tradition, then, reflects a deep tension between localised and centralised wisdom and challenges us to consider the tendency to silence the voice of dissident wisdom and invites us to re-appropriate the value and importance of local wisdom in our theological discourse.
Book Reviews by Rob (Robert) Stegmann
Conference Presentations by Rob (Robert) Stegmann
Physiognomy is concerned with how we read bodies. In this paper I explore the hermeneutical relat... more Physiognomy is concerned with how we read bodies. In this paper I explore the hermeneutical relationship between textual bodies and physical bodies by looking at the Pauline letters within the context of Roman Imperial ideology. With an understanding of the contextual backdrop against which and within which Paul's letters are to be understood, consideration is given to the ongoing influence of a body of texts, such as a Pauline corpus, in shaping bodies, arguing that bodies of texts rub up against physical bodies shaping identity both positively and negatively. Careful analysis of the scripted nature of bodily comportment is given by drawing attention to the regulative, normativising role of textual bodies on physical bodies, whether ancient or contemporary. In so doing, this paper seeks to wrestle with the hermeneutics of identity formation both in the Pauline letters and in the reception history of these letters for the church.
This paper seeks to explore the nature of well-being by considering Luke 8.40-56 from an interdis... more This paper seeks to explore the nature of well-being by considering Luke 8.40-56 from an interdisciplinary perspective. Drawing a socio-rhetorical analysis of this passage together with a more broadly social-scientific approach, this paper hopes to enrich our reading of the juxtaposed healing of Jairus’ daughter and the haemorrhaging woman by reflecting on how this episode re-imagines what is meant by well-being. We argue that the healing texts in the Synoptics, Luke 8.40-56 as a representative example, have often been considered too narrowly thaumaturgical, focusing almost exclusively on the physical healing. What emerges from our analysis, is a thick reading of the healing texts that invites a more integrated and holistic understanding of well-being. Our approach acknowledges the multilayered nature of the text and seeks to draw into conversation the insights of the social sciences in order to appropriate the text in ways that pay careful attention to the issues of power, marginalisation, exclusion, political and religious hegemony in relation to women and children. In so doing, the paper hopes to consider how this text can be read with the marginalised as a text that not only speaks to the issue of well-being, but serves to empower and facilitate well-being and healing.
The great challenge before the Church is the question of how to read the bible. More pointedly, t... more The great challenge before the Church is the question of how to read the bible. More pointedly, the challenge is how to read the bible within the concrete realities of daily life. Although the bible continues to fund the religious imagination of the community of faith, authorising its particular way of being in the world, the Church has been found guilty of reading the bible in oppressive and hegemonic ways without any consideration for the multiple social locations reflected in the biblical text itself. That is, the Church has generally read the bible as “Word of God,” seeing it as a universal and therefore normalising text for those who exercise hermeneutical control. Of particular concern for the purposes of this paper, is the way in which the biblical text has been appropriated by the Church in the construction of gendered identity. Within the Ricoeurian matrix—pre-critical, critical and post-critical modes—of hermeneutical engagement, the paper argues that the Church must move from the pre-critical to the critical in order to address the ways in which the biblical text has been read to support masculine and feminine identities in a static, and often oppressive manner. The negotiation of gendered identity in a post-apartheid South Africa, it is argued, takes place at the intersection of text, power, ethnicity, gender and economics. By employing post-colonial optics, this paper hopes to re-imagine gendered identity in a post-apartheid South Africa.
Thesis Chapters by Rob (Robert) Stegmann
Interpretational approaches to 1 Thessalonians tend either to (excessively) problematise and ques... more Interpretational approaches to 1 Thessalonians tend either to (excessively) problematise and question the ‘authoritative voice of Paul,’ or to (naively) lionise that same voice, thereby creating a deep tension between what amounts to an academic and a faith based or ecclesial approach. The tension is made all the more palpable when the discursive-rhetorical role of the biblical text is considered in relation to the construction and representation of masculinity. Broadly speaking, then, critical approaches are the province of the academy, while approaches that affirm the normativising role and centrality of Paul, belong to the church. The latter approach, which I characterise as pre-critical and/or ideologically biased, narrowly construes the possibilities for masculine identity construction and representation by seeing masculinity as fixed and stable. Textual engagement conforms to the more traditional approaches of interpretation which, while elucidating likely historical and textual frameworks for meaning-making, tend to either be agnostic about the gendered nature and discursive quality of the text, or downplay the presence of gendered bodies altogether. Critical approaches, by contrast, bring the gendered nature of the text into sharper relief, but often in inaccessible ways. By critical, I mean, approaches specifically aimed at paying meticulous attention to aspects of 1 Thessalonians that are assumed, on ideological/theological grounds, to be precluded from an investigation of the meaning of the text. In other words, while some critical approaches to 1 Thessalonians problematise the text (and its interpretations), not all critical approaches are interested in the question of gender generally, and of masculinity, specifically. At the centre of this dissertation, then, is the question of how 1 Thessalonians reveals a discursively constructed and represented masculinity and draws on the critical optic of gender criticism and postcolonial biblical criticism to “offer more language and recognition to those who found [find] themselves ostracised because they did [do] not confirm (sic.) to restrictive ideas of what it means to be a man or a woman” (quotation from Judith Butler, in Jaschik, 2017). The objective, moreover, for developing and applying this optic to 1 Thessalonians, is to model ethically responsible hermeneutics and in the context of masculinity, break open the narrow ways in which the biblical text is often interpreted and used to shape the “biblical” notion of masculinity (and femininity). In this study, I maintain that the polysemy of the biblical text, especially when read through the lens of gender criticism and postcolonial biblical criticism, together with an understanding of the discursive-rhetorical dimensions of the text, invites wider possibilities for identity construction and representation. This is crystallised in the transgendering which Paul, Silvanus and Timothy seem to adopt in the letter to the Thessalonian assembly.
Contested Masculinities: Polysemy and Gender in 1 Thessalonians, 2020
In Contested Masculinities, the author argues for the importance of critical consciousness, and a... more In Contested Masculinities, the author argues for the importance of critical consciousness, and attentiveness to the interplay of the biblical text, context and the long, complex, histories of interpretation that play out in the construction of masculinities. Locating his reading of 1 Thessalonians within the thickly textured setting of a postcolonial, post-apartheid South Africa, the author seeks to recontextualize Paul, providing a nuanced understanding of how Paul’s letters exercise authority over both the church and the academy. The author maintains that attempts to frame either the biblical text or notions of masculinity as singular and universal perpetuate and reinforce binary formulations (church/academy, global north/global south, colonizer/colonized, male/female) and entrench hierarchies of power. The author re-reads 1 Thessalonians, exploring the fissures that come into view when training a postcolonial and gender-critical lens on the biblical text and delivers a refreshing account that is playful and open and porous, especially as a conversational piece for masculinity, ancient and contemporary.
Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Gender Studies, 2014
Journal of Youth and Theology, 2007
While the Bible continues to fund the religious imagination of the community of faith, the church... more While the Bible continues to fund the religious imagination of the community of faith, the church has often been found guilty of reading the Bible oppressively. Such readings emerge because of a general ignorance of the layered traditions that reflect diverse social locations, and a complex transmission and interpretive history. This essay is particularly concerned with reading practices which both remains faithful to ancient biblical contexts, as well as to how gender identity, as a fluid construct, is continually negotiated in post-apartheid South Africa. By employing postcolonial optics, this paper hopes to re-imagine gendered identity in a post-apartheid South Africa.
This paper seeks to explore the nature of well-being by considering Luke 8.40-56 from an interdis... more This paper seeks to explore the nature of well-being by considering Luke 8.40-56 from an interdisciplinary perspective. Drawing a socio-rhetorical analysis of this passage together with a more broadly social-scientific approach, this paper hopes to enrich our reading of the juxtaposed healing of Jairus’ daughter and the haemorrhaging woman by reflecting on how this episode re-imagines what is meant by well-being. What emerges from our analysis, is a thick reading of this healing text that invites a more integrated and holistic understanding of well-being. Our approach acknowledges the multilayered nature of the text and seeks to draw into conversation the insights of the social sciences in order to appropriate the text in ways that pay careful attention to the issues of power, marginalisation, exclusion, political and religious hegemony in relation to women and children. In so doing, the paper considers how this text can be read with ordinary/pre-critical readers—especially those who are economically and socially marginalised—as a text that not only speaks to the issue of well-being, but serves to empower and facilitate well-being and healing.
Israel’s wisdom tradition reflects a profound and beautiful breadth in its ability to bring a wid... more Israel’s wisdom tradition reflects a profound and beautiful breadth in its ability to bring a wide range of lived experience to speech within an intentionally theological framework. Such breadth is evidenced in the number of genres, the variety of rhetorical devices employed in the tradition, and the use of existing source materials. All this suggests that this literature is both porous—allowing for a kind of literary freedom of ideas—and responsive to the existential realities of life. It is my contention that Israel’s wisdom tradition exemplifies a theological flexibility that allows it to draw on the rich wisdom that emerges from individual and communal reflection upon lived experiences. At the same time, the wisdom tradition also reflects a tendency towards theological certitude whereby some voices were silenced and others amplified in the service of those who exercised power. This rich tradition, then, reflects a deep tension between localised and centralised wisdom and challenges us to consider the tendency to silence the voice of dissident wisdom and invites us to re-appropriate the value and importance of local wisdom in our theological discourse.
Physiognomy is concerned with how we read bodies. In this paper I explore the hermeneutical relat... more Physiognomy is concerned with how we read bodies. In this paper I explore the hermeneutical relationship between textual bodies and physical bodies by looking at the Pauline letters within the context of Roman Imperial ideology. With an understanding of the contextual backdrop against which and within which Paul's letters are to be understood, consideration is given to the ongoing influence of a body of texts, such as a Pauline corpus, in shaping bodies, arguing that bodies of texts rub up against physical bodies shaping identity both positively and negatively. Careful analysis of the scripted nature of bodily comportment is given by drawing attention to the regulative, normativising role of textual bodies on physical bodies, whether ancient or contemporary. In so doing, this paper seeks to wrestle with the hermeneutics of identity formation both in the Pauline letters and in the reception history of these letters for the church.
This paper seeks to explore the nature of well-being by considering Luke 8.40-56 from an interdis... more This paper seeks to explore the nature of well-being by considering Luke 8.40-56 from an interdisciplinary perspective. Drawing a socio-rhetorical analysis of this passage together with a more broadly social-scientific approach, this paper hopes to enrich our reading of the juxtaposed healing of Jairus’ daughter and the haemorrhaging woman by reflecting on how this episode re-imagines what is meant by well-being. We argue that the healing texts in the Synoptics, Luke 8.40-56 as a representative example, have often been considered too narrowly thaumaturgical, focusing almost exclusively on the physical healing. What emerges from our analysis, is a thick reading of the healing texts that invites a more integrated and holistic understanding of well-being. Our approach acknowledges the multilayered nature of the text and seeks to draw into conversation the insights of the social sciences in order to appropriate the text in ways that pay careful attention to the issues of power, marginalisation, exclusion, political and religious hegemony in relation to women and children. In so doing, the paper hopes to consider how this text can be read with the marginalised as a text that not only speaks to the issue of well-being, but serves to empower and facilitate well-being and healing.
The great challenge before the Church is the question of how to read the bible. More pointedly, t... more The great challenge before the Church is the question of how to read the bible. More pointedly, the challenge is how to read the bible within the concrete realities of daily life. Although the bible continues to fund the religious imagination of the community of faith, authorising its particular way of being in the world, the Church has been found guilty of reading the bible in oppressive and hegemonic ways without any consideration for the multiple social locations reflected in the biblical text itself. That is, the Church has generally read the bible as “Word of God,” seeing it as a universal and therefore normalising text for those who exercise hermeneutical control. Of particular concern for the purposes of this paper, is the way in which the biblical text has been appropriated by the Church in the construction of gendered identity. Within the Ricoeurian matrix—pre-critical, critical and post-critical modes—of hermeneutical engagement, the paper argues that the Church must move from the pre-critical to the critical in order to address the ways in which the biblical text has been read to support masculine and feminine identities in a static, and often oppressive manner. The negotiation of gendered identity in a post-apartheid South Africa, it is argued, takes place at the intersection of text, power, ethnicity, gender and economics. By employing post-colonial optics, this paper hopes to re-imagine gendered identity in a post-apartheid South Africa.
Interpretational approaches to 1 Thessalonians tend either to (excessively) problematise and ques... more Interpretational approaches to 1 Thessalonians tend either to (excessively) problematise and question the ‘authoritative voice of Paul,’ or to (naively) lionise that same voice, thereby creating a deep tension between what amounts to an academic and a faith based or ecclesial approach. The tension is made all the more palpable when the discursive-rhetorical role of the biblical text is considered in relation to the construction and representation of masculinity. Broadly speaking, then, critical approaches are the province of the academy, while approaches that affirm the normativising role and centrality of Paul, belong to the church. The latter approach, which I characterise as pre-critical and/or ideologically biased, narrowly construes the possibilities for masculine identity construction and representation by seeing masculinity as fixed and stable. Textual engagement conforms to the more traditional approaches of interpretation which, while elucidating likely historical and textual frameworks for meaning-making, tend to either be agnostic about the gendered nature and discursive quality of the text, or downplay the presence of gendered bodies altogether. Critical approaches, by contrast, bring the gendered nature of the text into sharper relief, but often in inaccessible ways. By critical, I mean, approaches specifically aimed at paying meticulous attention to aspects of 1 Thessalonians that are assumed, on ideological/theological grounds, to be precluded from an investigation of the meaning of the text. In other words, while some critical approaches to 1 Thessalonians problematise the text (and its interpretations), not all critical approaches are interested in the question of gender generally, and of masculinity, specifically. At the centre of this dissertation, then, is the question of how 1 Thessalonians reveals a discursively constructed and represented masculinity and draws on the critical optic of gender criticism and postcolonial biblical criticism to “offer more language and recognition to those who found [find] themselves ostracised because they did [do] not confirm (sic.) to restrictive ideas of what it means to be a man or a woman” (quotation from Judith Butler, in Jaschik, 2017). The objective, moreover, for developing and applying this optic to 1 Thessalonians, is to model ethically responsible hermeneutics and in the context of masculinity, break open the narrow ways in which the biblical text is often interpreted and used to shape the “biblical” notion of masculinity (and femininity). In this study, I maintain that the polysemy of the biblical text, especially when read through the lens of gender criticism and postcolonial biblical criticism, together with an understanding of the discursive-rhetorical dimensions of the text, invites wider possibilities for identity construction and representation. This is crystallised in the transgendering which Paul, Silvanus and Timothy seem to adopt in the letter to the Thessalonian assembly.