Open    Access



Trauma and Narrative Wreckage in the Biblical Story of Hagar



Author(s)

Charles M. Rix

Full-Text PDF XML     2098 Views

DOI:10.17265/2328-2177/2015.03.005

Oklahoma Christian University, Oklahoma City, USA

The story of Hagar (Genesis 16 and 12) figures prominently in Bible’s patriarchal narratives of both the elected and rejected with respect to divine promise. As the story of an abused foreign woman cast out into an inhospitable wilderness along with her son, the story raises troubling questions about the portrayal of domestic violence perpetuated by those otherwise celebrated as “faithful” within biblical narratives: Abraham and his wife Sarah. In response to the relative silence on the topic of domestic violence among clergy and leaders of churches, synagogues, and other “sacred spaces”, this paper explores a reading of Hagar’s story that reclaims her value as a human being. With the help of post-Shoah reading sensitivities that expose strategies of dehumanization, this reading makes visible the way in which the ancient writer/reactor of Genesis performs as an advocate for Hagar in the face of the abuse heaped upon her. In so doing, Hagar’s story is transformed from a narrative about a rejected “other” into one that exposes abuse by the so-called “elected.” Thus read, the story provides support and encouragement for victims in contemporary religious cultures to step forward and tell their stories.

domestic violence, church leaders, Hagar, patriarch, clergy, narrative, post-Shoah, Holocaust narrative