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Abstract

The present study analyzes the socio-historical context and setting narrated in the canonical episode of Paul’s arrest and his treatment in Jerusalem according to the narrative of Acts 21:27-40a and 22:23-29. The pericopes become the fundamental platform through which it is possible to present both a hermeneutical and theological interpretation of the liabilities and ultimate consequences of racial profiling, especially when it is exercised by the civil authorities, an institutionalized power, or a general culture. The diachronic and synchronic exegetical analysis of the pericopes are combined with the methodological approaches of cognitive semantics and the practical theology that lead to the elucidations of an applied political theology implied in the racial profiling and discriminatory acts committed against the Black and Brown communities. The theological analysis focuses on the diegetic framework of the famous apologetic speech of Paul which has been underestimated in the exegetical and hermeneutical studies to date. Therefore, the biblical text becomes the source domain from which is possible to determine the behavioral patterns that become alive in the pragmatic dimension of any racial profiling manifested in the modern American milieu.

Comments

In 2023, all issues of the Journal of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium became available electronically on this site with the permission of the original publisher, Fortuity Press/Hamilton Publishing. All articles now carry the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivatives License (CC-BY-NC-ND).

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