Scholars@Duke
Susan Eastman

Susan Eastman

Associate Research Professor Emerita of New Testament
Divinity School
seastman@div.duke.edu
Duke Box 90967, Durham, NC 27708-0967
046 New Divinity, Divinity School, Durham, NC 27708

Selected Publications

Galatians 2:15–21

Journal Article Interpretation (United Kingdom) · October 1, 2022 Full text Cite

Christian Experience and Paul’s Logic of Solidarity: The Spiral Structure of Romans 5–8

Journal Article Biblical Annals · January 1, 2022 This essay investigates key aspects of the rhetorical structure of Romans 5–8 in relationship to Paul’s depictions of Christian experience. Taking Romans 5:1–5 as a blueprint for a trajectory of hope in chapters 5–8, I discuss three textual “detours” where ... Full text Cite

Communication, Agency, and the Relational Self in ASD and the Letters of Paul

Journal Article Journal of Disability and Religion · January 1, 2021 The experience and reflections of people on the autism spectrum act as a “context of discovery” about human communication and agency, in conversation with a robust theological account drawn from Paul’s depiction of personhood in relationship to sin and sal ... Full text Cite

Bodies, agency, and the relational self: A pauline approach to the goals and use of psychiatric drugs

Journal Article Christian Bioethics · October 26, 2018 In this essay, I use the theological anthropology of the apostle Paul as a diagnostic lens in order to bring into focus some implicit assumptions about human personhood in the goals and methods of treatment with psychotropic medications. I argue that Paul ... Full text Cite

Divine Love and the Constitution of the Self

Journal Article Journal for the Study of the New Testament · June 1, 2018 In this response I discuss some of the key remarks and suggestions in the foregoing reviews of Paul and the Person. These include questions of methodology in interdisciplinary engagements between science and theology, the tension and connection between cos ... Full text Cite

Love’s Folly: Love and Knowledge in 1 Corinthians

Journal Article Interpretation (United Kingdom) · January 1, 2018 Tracing the language of love through 1 Corinthians, this article argues that Paul calls the Corinthians into an attentive communion with one another, in which mutual love will shape their practical wisdom. Paul’s goal is not the establishment of communal r ... Full text Cite

Paul and the Person Reframing Paul's Anthropology

Book · 2017 In this book Susan Grove Eastman presents a fresh and innovative exploration of Paul's participatory theology in conversation with both ancient and contemporary conceptions of the self. ... Cite

The shadow side of second-person engagement: Sin in Paul's letter to the Romans

Journal Article European Journal for Philosophy of Religion · January 1, 2013 This paper explores the characteristics of debilitating versus beneficial intersubjective engagements, by discussing the role of sin in the relational constitution of the self in Paul's letter to the Romans. Paul narrates 'sin' as both a destructive holdin ... Full text Cite

The Life of Paul for Today

Journal Article INTERPRETATION-A JOURNAL OF BIBLE AND THEOLOGY · 2012 Cite

Sin's wages and God's gift in the divine economy: Reflections on romans 7 and the cleansing of the temple in john 2:13-17

Journal Article Expository Times · January 1, 2010 Adapted from a sermon on sin, condemnation and grace preached on March 15, 2009 in Duke Chapel, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. The Lectionary readings for the day were Romans 7:15-21 and John 2:13-17. ... Full text Cite

Israel and the Mercy of God: A Re-reading of Galatians 6.16 and Romans 9–11

Journal Article New Testament Studies · 2010 Noting the conjunction of 'mercy' and 'Israel' in Galatians 6.16 and Romans 911, this article argues that in both letters 'Israel' denotes the Jews. In Galatians 6.16, with an on-going mission to the Jews in view, Paul invokes peace on those who live accor ... Full text Link to item Cite

Galatians

Chapter · 2010 Cite

Philippians 2:6-11: Incarnation as Mimetic Participation

Journal Article Journal for the Study of Paul and his Letters · 2010 Cite

"Exegetical Perspectives"

Chapter · 2010 For Year C, Vol. 3, and Year A, Vol. 4. ... Cite

The foolish father and the economics of grace

Journal Article Expository Times · July 1, 2006 Link to item Cite

'Cast Out the Slave Woman and her Son': The Dynamics of Exclusion and Inclusion in Galatians 4.30

Journal Article Journal for the Study of the New Testament · 2006 Traditionally, the exclusionary command of Gal. 4.30 has been interpreted as proclaiming the exclusion of Jews from salvation, and more recently as commanding the Galatians to cast out the circumcising missionaries and their followers. Tracing the denotati ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Evil Eye and the Curse of the Law: Galatians 3.1 Revisited

Journal Article Journal for the Study of the New Testament · 2002 Paul's question in Gal. 3.1, 'Who has cast the evil eye on you?', echoes the Deuter onomic curse in which starving parents cast the evil eye and devour their own chil dren. This echo anticipates Paul's presentation of Christ crucified as the antidote to th ... Full text Link to item Cite

Whose Apocalypse? The Identity of the Sons of God in Romans 8:19

Journal Article Journal of Biblical Literature · 2002 Eastman offers a new interpretation of Paul's statement in Romans 8:19 regarding the identity of the "sons of God." Eastman proposes that the "apocalypse of the sons of God" enacts, completes, and vindicates God's rectifying activity in the gospel of Jesus ... Link to item Cite

The Evil Eye and the Curse of the Law: Galatians 3.1 Revisited

Journal Article Journal for the Study of the New Testament · January 1, 2001 Paul’s question in Gal. 3.1, ‘Who has cast the evil eye on you?’, echoes the Deuteronomic curse in which starving parents cast the evil eye and devour their own children. This echo anticipates Paul’s presentation of Christ crucified as the antidote to the ... Full text Cite