Sheesh! A post on recovering a Pauline emphasis on grace gets no comments, while a brief post on the Gaza conflict gets 38 comments? I’ve been in the wrong line of business…
Paul and Badiou
Mike mentions a coming conference in Glasgow on Paul, Political Fidelity and the Philosophy of Alain Badiou… it looks interesting: Speakers include Alain Badiou, John Barclay, and others…
Hmm… to go or not to go? Maybe I should get in touch with my Scottish heritage…
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
The recent shambles in the Gaza strip reminded me of two pictures that I took from the Palestinian side of the “Berlin wall” that Israel has constructed to divide off Palestinian territory:
“Give them justice; they will reward you with peace”
“I am not a terrorist”
Ethics in Cambridge
Yesterday I was at a little study day in Cambridge, focusing on Christian ethics – specifically, peace-building. It was worthwhile, helping me to think through applied ethics/practical theology, whereas usually I’m focused on textual/hermeneutical issues. I have three observations:
- Peace building is a complex issue, and requires cooperation at various levels – Top down (eg world leaders), mid-level (eg community leaders), and grass roots (including relief & development)
- If anyone ever starts a question with “It’s just a very brief comment/question really…” you can be sure they are lying. If it really were a brief comment/question, they wouldn’t need to preface it like that!!
- Drawing ethical trajectories from social conceptions of the trinity is the new black
Thoughts on the New Perspective: Recovering Grace
Tied up with the New Perspective on Paul has been a re-assessment of Luther, and his emphasis on a Pauline dichotomy between ‘grace’ and ‘works’/legalism:
“Paul’s argument with the Judaizers was not about Christian grace versus Jewish legalism.” – The Paul Page: http://www.thepaulpage.com/
“Paul was not trying to persuade the Romans that they could not justify themselves and therefore needed the gift of grace.” – Purpose & Cause in Pauline Exegesis, by Wendy Dabourne, p202: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=1uzCuUijna4C
“It has made clear once and for all what interpreters should not derive from Romans: the old caricature, associated with traditional Lutheranism, of Judaism as a religion of works-righteousness, which Luther found reprehensible in Catholicism.” – Brendan Byrne, ‘Interpreting Romans Theologically in a Post-”New Perspective” Perspective’ Harvard Theological Review 94/3 (2001) 227-41
“The likelihood that Paul adopted elements of the Jewish teaching regarding justification blocks from the beginning a Lutheran viewpoint where there is a fundamental antithesis between Paul and Judaism, gospel and law.” – Maico Michielin, ‘Bridging the gulf between biblical scholars and theologians: Can Barth and Wright provide an answer?’ Scottish Journal of Theology 61/4 (2008 ) 420–434
My own thinking is that Luther was right to see a defiant emphasis on grace in Paul – but the legacy of the Reformation has been such that this emphasis has been couched in rather narrow terminology – more narrow than that of Paul himself: Paul’s emphasis on grace has come to be equated with the phrase “faith not works“. But Paul himself only sometimes uses this sort of terminology. I wonder if it is more attentive to the breadth of Paul’s writings to say that he generally emphasises grace in terms of “God not human“: It is essential for Paul that life/salvation/justification/sanctification/glory/honour/hope/etc etc etc arise from God’s accomplishment in Jesus, rather than from human autonomy. He pushes this theme far more widely than simply a few sections of Romans and Galatians. 1 Corinthians, for example, never talks about “faith versus works” – but is filled with the urgent need to rely on that which is of God, rather than that which is human. Colossians, similarly, doesn’t emphasise “faith versus works”, but does emphasise the urgent need to remain in Christ rather than being swayed by human traditions.
So perhaps in trying to read Paul in a way that’s unencumbered by Lutheran spectacles, we should be careful that we’re not simply trading in one inadequate summary (“faith not works”) for another (“inclusion not exclusion”).
Again with the Psalms???
aka ”Again with the Sweat Pants???”
In one episode of Seinfeld, George decides to quit dressing to impress, and, upon seeing him, Jerry remarks, “Again with the sweat pants???” Well here at Cryptotheology it’s a case of “Again with the Psalms???” – Peter and I are co-presenting a paper on the way the New Testament draws upon the Psalms. Peter’s looking at the structure of the Psalter, the place of David, and the flow of individual psalms. I’m then seeing how the New Testament takes up these themes and patterns in order to interpret Jesus…
Department of Theology and Religious Studies
Dialogue Postgraduate Research Seminar
Theology and Aesthetics
Monday 19th January 2009
4:30pm – 6:00pm
Arts Graduate Centre, Trent Building
Kirsten Gfroerer
‘At the Junction of Communion’: Poetry and the Church in the work of Charles Williams
and
Peter Watts & Matthew Malcolm
Jesus’ Praise in the Midst of Israel
Review of Biblical Literature blog
The Review of Biblical Literature now has a blog, keeping track of their reviews of theological books. This is something worth keeping track of if you’re interested in staying up to date with the latest in biblical scholarship. And I notice that there is a review of Thiselton’s Hermeneutics of Doctrine in prime position. The review includes a funny little piece of information about Thiselton (who is one of the most well-read people I know):
His [1958] preordination medical report… read, “This man will never be able to read enough books to exercise a useful parish ministry”
!!
Christocentric Rhetoric in Colossians
The more I think about it and look into it, the more I think Paul was centrally gripped by the narrative of Christ’s death and resurrection – which he understood according to categories suggested by the Hebrew Scriptures… and this central narrative creatively shaped the flow of his thought and writing. Lately I’ve been reading and re-reading Colossians (the Greek is surprisingly easy), and below is the way I hear the flow of this letter: I’ve tried to represent rhythmic/rhetorical movement by the use of indentations and terminology…
1:1-2:5: Christ in You; You in Christ
Christ in You
1:3-8: The mystery of the gospel, growing & bearing fruit throughout the world
You in Christ
1:9-14: The knowledge of him, growing & bearing fruit in the Colossians
Christ in You
1:15-20: Christ supreme in creation & salvation (in the cross)
You in Christ
1:21-23: Christ sufficient for Colossians’ salvation (in his body)
Christ in You
1:24-29: Paul continues suffering on behalf of Christ’s body, proclaiming Christ
You in Christ
2:1-5: Paul’s concern for the Colossians – that they might know Christ
2:6-4:1: Walking in Christ
Recall Christ, the Head of the Body
2:8-19: Don’t be carried away by human philosophy, but grow into Christ
Dying with Christ
2:20-23: Don’t seek to restrain the body with worldly restrictions
Rising with Christ
3:1-4: Set your minds on that which is above, where Christ is
Dying with Christ
3:5-11: Put to death those bodily members that are worldly: Bodily immorality & (relational) sins of the mouth
Rising with Christ
3:12-17: Clothe yourselves with relational virtues & love, exhibiting the grace of Christ, the peace of Christ, the word of Christ
3:18-4:1: Exhibit the submission and love of Christ in household relationships
4:2-18: Service of Christ in the World and the Church
Proclaiming the Mystery of Christ
4:2-6: The word of Christ before outsiders
Slaves of Christ in the Church
4:7-18: Tychicus, Onesimus, Aristarchus, Mark, Barnabas, Justus, Epaphras, Luke, Nymphas, Archippus, Paul
Glory and Shame in Wittenberg
The weekend trip to Germany was great – and the chance to look around Wittenberg was really worthwhile. Here are three pictures that display the glory and shame of the period associated with this immensely influential town:
The first picture is of the (rebuilt) church where Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses to the door back in 1517, thus beginning the Protestant Reformation. It was beautiful, covered by snow. We also visited Lutherhaus and Melanchthonhaus, which were full of Reformation treasures…
The second picture is taken inside the Stadtkirche – the main church of Wittenberg, in which Luther frequently preached. The picture depicts Luther preaching “Christ, and him crucified” to the people of God…
And now for the shame: I was astonished to find out about this feature, which is on the outside of the very same Stadtkirche: It depicts “the Jews” suckling on a pig, and licking its behind. What an ugly reminder of the anti-Semitism that marrs Luther’s legacy…
Classical versus Theological Rhetoric in Paul
As part of my research, I’m wanting to evaluate and push forward discussion of rhetoric in Paul. I think that classical rhetoric has been pushed too far in terms of trying to explain the movement of Paul’s letters, and that other influences (such as Paul’s Hebrew heritage) need to be given more consideration. Here are my current thoughts, as this applies to 1 Corinthians:
Michael Gorman identifies four patterns of reversal in Scripture and Jewish tradition, which could have provided Paul with a background for “a narrative pattern of reversal”:
God’s exaltation of the humble, God’s vindication of the persecuted and of righteous sufferers, God’s ultimate resolution of messianic “birth pangs” in the new age, and God’s raising of the dead.[1]
It is more precise and helpful to consider this narrative pattern of reversal as two closely related patterns, one of death followed by resurrection, the other of humiliation followed by exaltation. Both patterns clearly preceded Paul and also survived after him, but few early Christians exploited them as fully as did Paul.[2]
At the heart of my thesis is the contention that 1 Corinthians may be attentively heard as expressing the fundamentality of identification with Christ in his death and resurrection, in order to move the Corinthian church from presumptuous autonomy to dependence on God in Christ. I think it can be argued that this rhetorical arrangement makes good sense both in terms of Paul’s history and Paul’s literary-rhetorical environment.
I suggest that for Paul himself, the Damascus Road experience involved repudiating a model of religiosity characterised by (retrospectively presumptuous) zealous cleansing of Israel, and adopting a model of religiosity characterised by dependent participation in the identity of Israel’s crucified, risen, and presently hidden Messiah Jesus. Thus Paul’s formative experience of Jesus, as one whose resurrected Lordship had been startlingly hidden by the outrageous shame of his crucifixion, created in Paul a heightened sensitivity to what he perceived to be effectively presumptuous/autonomous religiosity, and provided an obvious antidote: The necessity of identification with the Messiah who is surprisingly found in the cross, and who will one day be revealed in glory.
In responding to perceived presumptuous/autonomous spirituality in Corinth, then, Paul was able to creatively draw on the “apocalyptic” rhetorical movement from emphatic present hiddenness and apparent humiliation through to future revelation and vindication, thereby emphasising the necessity of sharing in Christ’s death – and hiddenness – before sharing fully in the manifestation of Christ’s resurrected glory.
This may perhaps be thought of as “theological rhetoric”, because Greco-Roman patterns of argumentation are not adhered to in a straightforward way, but are put into the service of a chiefly theological arrangement.
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