Abstract

ACOSTA B, MILTON. ETHNICITY AND THE PEOPLE OF GOD. Theol. Xave. [online]. 2009, vol.59, n.168, pp.309-330. ISSN 0120-3649.

This article challenges popular and sometimes academic ideas regarding the importance of ethnicity for the identity of the people of God in the Bible. It seeks to demonstrate through the study of some key biblical narratives that ethnicity is irrelevant when it comes to belonging to the people of God even in the Old Testament. This article reviews stories in the Old and New Testaments where «outsiders» become part of the people of God and «insiders» are excluded. The article concludes that both as a theological concept and as a practical reality the people of God is multi-racial and multiethnic from the very beginning.

Keywords : Culture; ethnicity; ethnocentrism; mission; people of God.

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