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Disrupting the Normal Reality of Slavery: a Feminist Reading of the Letter to Philemon

Eggweg 13, CH-3065 Bolligen, Switzerland

The letter to Philemon shows the struggle of communities of believers in Christ to find areas in which they could act within the dominating system of the Pax Romana. The enslavement of human beings was one of the supports of this system, and the 'case' of the slave Onesimus brings about a rupture in the normality of slavery, making clear the discrepancy between slavery and the liberating message of the gospel. The letter creates a critical public which becomes the guarantee of a new mutual relationship between slaves and free persons. Our concern today must be to use such individual cases to unmask systems that show contempt for human beings, and to tell the story of the victims.

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