Slavery, Abolitionism, and the Ethics of Biblical Scholarship

In this immensely wide-ranging and fascinating study, Avalos critiques
the common claim that the abolition of slavery was due in large part to
the influence of biblical ethics. Such a claim, he argues, is
characteristic of a broader phenomenon in biblical scholarship, which
focuses on defending, rather than describing, the ethical norms
encountered in biblical texts.
The first part of Avalos's critique explores how modern scholars have
praised the supposed superiority of biblical ethics at the cost of
diminishing or ignoring many similar features in ancient Near Eastern
cultures. These features include manumission, fixed terms of service,
familial rights, and egalitarian critiques of slavery. At the same time,
modern scholarship has used the standard tools of biblical exegesis in
order to minimize the ethically negative implications of many biblical
references to slavery.
The second part of the book concentrates on how the Bible has been
used throughout Christian history both to maintain and to extend
slavery. In particular, Avalos offers detailed studies of papal documents
used to defend the Church's stance on slavery. Discussions of Gregory
of Nyssa, Aquinas and Luther, among others, show that they are not
such champions of freedom as they are often portrayed.
Avalos's close readings of the writings of major abolitionists such as
Granville Sharp, William Wilberforce and Frederick Douglass show an
increasing shift away from using the Bible as a support for
abolitionism. Biblical scholars have rarely recognized that pro-slavery
advocates could use the Bible just as effectively. According to Avalos,
one of the complex mix of factors leading to abolition was the
abandonment of the Bible as an ethical authority. The case of the
biblical attitude to slavery is just one confirmation of how unsuitable
the Bible is as a manual of ethics in the modern world.