City, Country, Rock

Space and its Ethical Significance in the Samson Narratives (Judg 13–16)

Abstract

In recent decades, geography and sociology have developed a concept of space that has abandoned the rigid, homogeneous and inanimate notion. Space is now understood as an animate space that is constituted and transformed by its subjects. This action-oriented notion moves considerations of space close to ethical thinking, which relies on topographical localizations. As a fictional space, these ideas also apply to the spaces described in biblical narratives. Such a space is described by the stories about the hero Samson. The latter vacillates between assimilation and conquest of the border area between Israelites and Philistines, but finally appears as a conqueror who considerably decimates the enemies in their homeland. This shows the great problem of transferring such an ethic to present ethical thinking.