The letter to Philemon, written almost two thousand years ago to a rich landowner in present-day Turkey, about the fate reserved for a fugitive slave, despite its brevity, has still not exhausted its resources, nor its subversive character.
Thus, the treatment of the Onésime case can be read as the summary of a lesson in humanity, the search for a new otherness. It reveals a form of emancipatory thinking which opens wide an exit door upwards.
This work, far from classic commentaries, invites us to follow interpretive lines close to philosophy, politics and the concerns of our time. It opens us to the historical, geographical, social, legal, political, religious, linguistic, philosophical and literary context of the Greco-Roman universe and of these surprising and endearing characters who are Philemon, Onesimus, Paul and the others.
Jean-Marie Thomasseau is Professor Emeritus of the University of Paris 8. A specialist in the history of popular theaters in the 19th century, he has jointly oriented his research towards the particularities of theatrical writing. For several years, in line with these questions about the meaning, power and scope of texts, he has sought to reread biblical writings differently.
ISBN: 9782356141033