This week I’ve received a copy of a publication that’s hot off the press: Trinity Working Papers, Volume 1, August 2008. It is published by Trinity Theological College in Western Australia and contains a few papers that were presented there last year. This edition focuses on Paul and includes three papers: ‘The Argumentation of the Main Body of 1 Corinthians with Particular Regard for the Placement of Chapter 15′ (by myself); ‘What’s Right With Wright’s Perspective on Paul?’ (by Rolf Van Wollingen) and ‘The Life of Herod Agrippa I and His Significance for the History of Early Christianity’ (by Rory Shiner).
My paper is 37 pages long and goes into my reading of 1 Corinthians in some depth – as at July of last year. My views have undergone some development since then, but the picture is still (perhaps surprisingly) extremely representative of my current thinking about the letter.
I haven’t yet read Rolf VW’s paper, although I will be interested to go through it, as I’m currently reading Francis Watson’s book Paul, Judaism and the Gentiles: Beyond the New Perspective… I’m interested in hearing other evaluations of the contributions of the New Perspective on Paul.
But I’ve just finished reading Rory Shiner’s paper, about Agrippa’s significance for early Christian history – and I’ve found it quite fascinating. Here’s a little taste:
The significance of Agrippa’s rule and death may shed light on one particular puzzle of early Christianity – the uneven nature of Paul’s ministry. Our sources compel us to put Paul’s period of ministry into two uneven sections: a period of thirteen or fourteen years from his conversion in circa AD 34 to circa AD 47, and a shorter ten year period of aggressive church planting in the west of the Empire….
Into this context, Agrippa’s death, and its effect on Judea in general and Judean Christianity in particular offers itself as an important piece of data. The post-44 situation, as we have argued, provided the necessary circumstances for the Judaizing mission that was to pursue Paul. It seems likely, or at least highly plausible, that this changed situation also provides the context for Paul’s activities post-44. On the one hand, the Judaizing mission seems to have bolstered Paul’s conviction that the coming of Messiah Jesus necessitated the mission to the Gentiles. And, on the other hand, the frenetic nature of Paul’s post-44 mission may indicate that he himself read the post-44 in apocalyptic terms. The difference is that for Paul the apocalyptic mood resulted in a radical inclusion of the Gentiles rather than a radical defence of Jewish privilege (Rom 9-11:32, 15:8-12, 15-22).
Interesting stuff… The more I work on my research, the more I think we really need to be attentive to these sorts of questions in trying to understand Paul’s writings. The publication is available from Trinity Theological College for AUD $15 (about $15 US).
RSS - Posts