Can anything good come out of Nazareth? – pondering names and their power to shame
NATHANIEL’S question to Philip was instinctive. How could a wise, upright citizen emerge from such a place? In articulating the epithet – Nazareth – Nathaniel assumed that all those within earshot would know its meaning. To be known as an inhabitant of such a town was to be tainted, to be diminished and ultimately to be dismissed. So this was an act of public shaming by means of naming.
* Full article available in printed copies.
Robin Stockitt
a noted theological writer, until recently lectured at the C of I Theological Institute and was rector of Donagheady, diocese of Derry.