The Challenge of Economy: A Cultural Interpretation of Luke's Oikonomia

Abstract

This dissertation examines the issue of Lukan economy (oikonomia) which creates tensions and ambivalence under the reality of the Empire. The economy (oikonomia) in the Gospel of Luke emerges from the oikos (e.g., Luke 12:13-21; 14:15-23; 15:11-32; 16:1-9, 16:19-31), a place to where the prodigal returns as he is still “prodigal" (Luke 15:25) and where dishonest steward is praised for his “shrewdness" (16:8). The economy embodied in Luke’s oikos discourse may not be merely or essentially comprised of wealth and property; rather it serves as the impetus that encourages the subject to cross over the constructed boundary between center and periphery, metropolis and margins—in effect, the imperial and the colonial. Its pervasive interdependence from with-in and with-out embraces the voiceless and spurns the Empire (Luke 15:32). In this regard, the engagement in, and reflection of, political economy in the Gospel of Luke shall become a prophetic statement for the world today.