African Cosmology, Hierarchies of Power, and Slave Dynamics in the Book of Philemon

Abstract

Past scholarship on Philemon has reiterated the cultural and institutional power of slavery with particular attention to the acceptance and use of slavery as an important instrument of control and domination. Working within this scholarship, the present work acknowledges the centrality of the preceding thesis, but engages the letter to Philemon from the perspective of the inherent cosmology which accepted the master/slave hierarchical structure within a religious framework in explaining human/divine encounters, and encounters among human beings. Since African cosmology exhibits interesting points of continuity with this projected cosmology, this paper charts a new direction for studies in Philemon by reiterating the critical importance of this hierarchy of power relations in the master/slave model at the heart of the letter. It is this accepted worldview that prevented Paul from advocating for the freedom of Onesimus, and called for the double imprisonments of Onesimus. Consequently, the study interrogates the cosmology of Philemon in connection to African divine/human encounters by problematizing the description of God as Master, and the devotees as the helpless slaves of the deity. This cultural mindset naturally accepts slavery and normalizes human/divine encounters within the rhetoric of this dehumanizing enterprise.