From Slave to Saint
Onesimus Throughout Christian History
- History & Biography
- Publisher: Fortress Press (Augsburg Fortress)
- Published: 2027
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Publisher's Description
Though only 25 verses long, Paul's Letter to Philemon has had a profound effect on Christian history and thought. This brief, enigmatic letter focuses on the enslaved figure of Onesimus. Since the U.S. Civil War, biblical scholars have focused on historical-critical investigations of the epistle's first-century context and the reception of this letter in the Antebellum South. Little work, however, has been done on how Christians imagined Onesimus between the 1st and the 19th centuries or after the Civil War. In this book, Chance E. Bonar offers a reception history of Onesimus from the first century until today. In doing so, he highlights unknown and underexplored aspects of Onesimus's presence in late ancient and medieval Christian memory and storytelling, particularly through the martyrdom tradition that emerged and developed around Onesimus by the seventh century. Onesimus started out as a historical enslaved person in the first century, but quickly became a biblical literary character whom later Christians used as a site for crafting their own discourses about slavery, mastery, and piety. Bonar's argument sheds light on the expansive Christian storytelling about Onesimus that took place in the eastern Mediterranean and the Horn of Africa in late antiquity and the medieval period--stories that were unknown or lost to later Anglophone Bible readers--as well as how Onesimus has continued to be a literary and theological resource for writers well into the 20th century. In doing so, Bonar demonstrates the value of apocryphal Christian traditions to our modern understanding of a biblical figure. Although Onesimus, as an enslaved person, was marginalized and invisibilized even in Paul's letter to Philemon and in Antebellum biblical interpretation, Bonar's book highlights how later Christians constructed stories about Onesimus as a martyr, saint, bishop, and missionary worth memorializing.
Endorsements (5)
“Bonar’s From Slave to Saint is a significant contribution to our understanding of the historical reception of the figure of Onesimus and to apocryphal studies. By focusing on Onesimus tradition, the study demonstrates that the writing of Christian apocrypha did not end in antiquity, and shines light on how Onesimus has been used in the service of both oppression and liberation throughout the centuries.”
“In From Slave to Saint, Chance Bonar traces two thousand years of apocryphal storytelling that leverages the letter to Philemon and the figure of Onesimus to structure explorations of slavery, mastery, and Christian piety. Bonar expertly navigates a complex academic field and a diverse pool of primary texts to bring to the surface a tension inherent in the historical deployment of the character of Onesimus to alternatively justify or deny Christianity’s role in the practice of enslavement. In the end, Bonar’s careful review of Onesimus’s rhetorical utility challenges future storytellers to engage in more honest and intentional explorations of Christianity’s relationship with enslavement and to consider how they can better facilitate repair and support moving forward.”
“In the burgeoning field of Enslavement and Early Christian Studies, Chance Bonar deftly reveals the historical afterlives of Onesimus, a seemingly minor New Testament figure. From Slave to Saint demonstrates to what extent Christian traditions—across many geographical areas and historical periods—relied on enslavement to craft theological concepts.”
“With characteristic brilliance, Bonar shines a light on an Onesimus largely lost to modern scholars and lay readers alike. Ranging widely across centuries and cultures, he traces the rich and surprising reception history of this enigmatic figure both within and beyond the Anglophone world. Learned, engaging, and deeply thought-provoking, this book reveals how a seemingly small character from the New Testament became a site of enduring theological and cultural imagination.”
“We do not know very much about the historical Onesimus, a Christian slave mentioned in Paul’s epistle to Philemon. The literary figure of Onesimus, however, has had—and continues to have—a fascinating afterlife. To trace the story of the remembered (and, in part, abused) slave Onesimus, Chance Bonar not only brings little-known apocryphal and parabiblical traditions to light, but also presents modern debates surrounding Onesimus, illuminates their historical context, and thus describes the breathtaking journey of a character who has grown increasingly complex over the course of history. Outstanding!”
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