Abstract
Vaage has assembled a fine book revolving around four core essays initially published in Spanish in Revista de interpretación bíblica latino americana (1996–1999). While the introduction briefly explains what prompted these essays, the autobiographical chapter found at the center provides more details about this matter by describing the author’s movements from British Columbia to Southern California to Toronto and to Nova Scotia with an especially meaningful time in Lima, Peru. The first essay focuses on God’s answer to Job’s complaint (Job 38:1–41:34). It argues that Job’s former wealth and high social status are responsible for his dire condition. The second essay turns to the Gospel of Matthew’s vision of a different political economy set forth in Jesus’ teaching. This different model reflects on the meaning of “fullness of life” and ultimately suggests being content with what the created world can provide instead of creating greater wealth. The third essay considers the ascetical instruction of the letter of James about the control of one’s tongue to speak true wisdom. The final essay proposes reading the book of Revelation as a case of collective dream work, enabling the text to be seen as interrupting the current nightmare experienced in the daily life of its community of origin.
The amount and diversity of the ground covered in the volume are impressive. The approach adopted in the book is called “borderline exegesis.” V. explains the use of the term “borderline” and “borderlands” as the exploration of “some neglected detail or unacknowledged or under-explored fact or overarching conclusion, which prevailing usage of the space variously has ignored, covered up, not fully or all too forcibly exploited” (12). V.’s work is exegetical, using a number of conventional methods of modern academic historical criticism mostly for their “alienation” effect, that is, their capacity to remind us that biblical texts are the traces of earlier lives and aspirations. V. also explains that these conventional methods are the academic lingua franca of our time.
This is a very rich book. It takes the reader to a point where interpretive possibilities make a real difference in our vision of the world. V. weaves together biblical exegesis and contemporary social issues with a touch of poetry. Each essay can be read on its own, but the progression is better grasped by reading it in the presented order. The first essay raises one’s consciousness of place in the world, the second questions the dominant economic model and proposes an alternative, the third provides instructions for training oneself in wisdom, and the last points to the location of the interrupters that could spur change in the current political and economic systems.
This is not necessarily an easy book to read. V.’s prose is not always straightforward and can be convoluted. For instance, when explaining “alternate subjectivity” in the third essay, his multiple explanations about the meaning of the phrase are unclear until he makes an analogy with Hegel’s master–slave dialectic (110). Notwithstanding this minor problem, the book deserves to become known, read, and discussed. It could be a great resource in theology courses on social justice issues.