Revolutionary Motifs in the Miracle Narratives of Luke's Gospel: A Postcolonial Reading

This book used postcolonial approach in studying Lukan miracle stories; the miracles were portrayed as mode of Jesus' intervention in situations of vulnerability and exploitation of various kinds, besides works of emancipation and breaking of gender and race discrimination. The book also provides fresh insights towards the reading and understanding of the miracles of Jesus as "revolutionary" in nature when compared with other miracle workers of the time. As instruments of transformative power, miracles of Jesus in Luke confronted imperial and oppressive structures and promoted justice and wholistic healing. The book illuminated that Miracles were means of Jesus' intervention in the socio-political set up of his time to actualize the principles of the reign of God in the lives of the most susceptible and oppressed persons' lives.

Rev. Dr. Kennedy Poumai is currently the Vice- Principal of Manipur Theological College (MTC), Kangpokpi, Manipur. He is teaching for the last 19 years at MTC as an Associate Professor. He served as Principal at Phuba Baptist English School (2000- 2003) and President of Poumai Theological Association (2003-2005). He holds Doctorate in Biblical Studies (New Testament) from Senate of Serampore College (University). Some of his articles are appeared in international and national journals.

Parables and miracles which form the core of Jesus' life and work have drawn much attention in the study and research of the Gospels. The former emphasizes the teachings of Jesus while the latter concentrates on his works. The miracles performed by Jesus were studied both in relation to Old Testament and Judaism as well as in relation to the Hellenistic context of healers and miracle workers.. While most affirm the veracity of Jesus' miracles there are others who question the historicity of the miracles attributed to Jesus. With increased number of healing campaigns by tele evangelists and gospel preachers claiming to be healers of all type of sicknesses and upsurge in ill-health of various kinds despite advances in medical research and health care infrastructure, interest in the study of miracles of Jesus have gained renewed interest in recent years.
Dr Kennedy Poumai's research makes a detailed study of the miracles of Jesus as appear in the Lukan narratives with special attention on the socio-political and economic setting of the Lukan community for whose sake the miracles were reported. Lukan context is further accentuated by focusing on those miracles which are unique to the Lukan portrayal of Jesus story and looking at the distinctiveness of the Lukan redaction where the same miracle stories appear in the gospels of Mark and Matthew.
Using a postcolonial approach in studying Lukan miracle stories, the miracles were portrayed as mode of Jesus' intervention in situations of vulnerability and exploitation of various kinds, besides works of emancipation and breaking of gender and race discrimination. In the process the study provides fresh insights towards the reading and understanding of the miracles of Jesus as "revolutionary" in nature when compared with other miracle workers of the time. As instruments of transformative power, miracles of Jesus in Luke confronted imperial and oppressive structures and promoted justice and wholistic healing.

The work is an attempt to look at the revolutionary motifs within select miracle stories of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke from a postcolonial perspective Exploring the revolutionary motifs within the miracles, especially the healing miracles of Jesus raise a number of interesting questions and seeking new insights in understanding Lukan miracle stories and the Gospel as a whole. In a context where miraculous acts were so common, what made miracles of Jesus as recorded by the evangelists different from these of other so called miracle workers? What was the nature of the political and economic set up in Roman Palestine behind the miracle stories? Why were the Gospels, especially Luke's Gospel, so rich of the healing miracles? What was the relationship between socio-cultural, economic conditions and miracles? Was there a link between poverty, socio-cultural and political oppression and exploitation on the one side and miracles of Jesus on the other, in Luke?
This research follows Postcolonial Reading, which engages in reconstructive reading of biblical texts. Postcolonial reading engages biblical texts from the perspective of postcolonial concerns such as liberation struggles of the past and present; it is sensitive to subaltern and feminine elements embedded in the texts. It identifies protesting or oppositional voices. In words, postcolonial criticism brings marginal elements to the front and, in the process, subverts the traditional meaning.
Postcolonial critics highlight God's justice and love for all people by lifting up the silenced voices, and analyzes their struggles for self-determination by problematizing the authority of the text that taught them as lesser beings, and by emphasizing the importance of readers' responses, the contexts of the text, and its writers' hermeneutics: "texts point beyond their origin, inviting their readers to act them out in history and cross-culturally." This is mainly an exegetical study analyzing and examining those passages peculiar to Luke's Gospel and paralleled miracle narratives of the other synoptic Gospels.