andygoodliff

Krister Stendhal (1921-2008)

Halden shares the news that Krister Stendhal has died. Stendhal was a New Testament scholar must famously known for his groundbreaking essay “Paul and the Introspective Consciouness of the West” (first published in 1963 in the Harvard Theological Review), which later appeared in his most celebrated book, Paul Among Jews and Gentiles. In this essay he challenges the "Lutheran" reading of Paul, which is early precusor to much that has followed in Pauline theology (Sanders, Dunn, Wright, Watson, Stowers, Campbell).

Ten Indisepensable Journal Articles on Paul's Theology

1. John Barclay, 'Mirror-Reading a Polemical Letter: Galatians as a Test Case', JSNT 31: 73-93 (1987)

2. J. Louis Martyn, 'Apocalyptic Antinomies in Paul's Letter to the Galatians; NTS 31: 410-424 (1985)

3. J. D. G. Dunn, 'The New Perspective on Paul', BJRL 65: 95-122 (1982-1083)

4. Douglas Campbell, 'The Meaning of PISTIS and NOMOS in Paul: A Linguistic and Structural Investigation', JBL 111: 91-103 (1992)

5. Richard B. Hays, ' "Have we Found Abraham to Be Our Forefather According to the Flesh?" A Reconsideration of Rom 4.1', NovT 27: 76-98 (1985)

6. Krister Stendhal, 'The Apostle Paul and the Introspective Conscience of the West', HTR 56: 199-215 (1963)

7. N. T. Wright, '‘aJrpagmov~ and the Meaning of Philippians 2.5–11’, in JTS 37: 321-52 (1986)

8. Francis Watson, 'The Authority of the Voice: A Theological Reading of 1 Cor 11.2-16', NTS 46: 520-536 (2000)

9. J. Christiaan Beker, 'Contingency and Coherence in the Letters of Paul', USQR 33: 141-151 (1978)

10. Jouette M. Bassler, 'Divine Impartiality in Paul's Letter to the Romans', NovT 26: 43-58 (1984)

The Faith of Jesus Christ, SBL Seminar

As well as the AAR meeting, the Society for Biblical Literature (SBL) meeting happens at the same time in the same location. This seminar on the pistis Christou debate will be a definite highlight. It was in 1991 (I think) at SBL that Richard Hays (arguing for 'faith/fulness of Christ') and Jimmy Dunn (arguing for 'faith in Christ') had a famous debate. (You can find both these papers in Hays' 2nd ed. of The Faith of Jesus Christ, Eerdmans 2002)  Michael Bird is editing a collection of papers (I'm guessing emerging out of this seminar) on this topic.

The Faith of Jesus Christ: Exegetical, Biblical and Theological Studies

Michael Bird, Highland Theological College
The Faith of Jesus Christ: Problems and Prospects

Stanley Porter, McMaster Divinity College
Lexical and Semantic Reflections on Pistis

Douglas Campbell, Duke University
The Faithfulness of Jesus Christ in Romans and Galatians

Preston Sprinkle, Aberdeen University
Pistis Christou as an Eschatological Event

Ardel Caneday, Northwestern College, St. Paul
The Faithfulness of Jesus as a Theme of Pauline Theology

Francis Watson, University of Durham
The Faith of Jesus Christ

R. Barry Matlock, University of Sheffield
The Faithfulness of Jesus Christ in Romans and Galatians

Mark Elliott, University of St. Andrews
The Faith of Jesus Christ in the Church Fathers

Benjamin Myers, University of Queensland
The Faithfulness of Christ in the Theology of Karl Barth

Douglas Campbell at SBL

Douglas Campbell, who taught me Paul at KCL is busy at SBL this year. (The book he's been working on on the problem of the JF reading is almost finished.) I've also highlighted some other interesting papers on Paul that look good.

Douglas A. Campbell, Duke University
Tit for Tat: A Rhetorical and Apocalyptic Analysis of Paul's Intertextuality in His Justification Texts
The language that Paul uses in the passages where he speaks about Justification is distinctly intertextual. Most interpreters have construed this language as an attempt by Paul to corroborate a particular account of his gospel directly, building from problem to solution. Against this trajectory, this paper will argue that Paul's use of Scripture represents a "tit-for-tat" argument with another adept Jewish-Christian exegete from whose system Paul has appropriated some of the texts that he cites. In the process, Paul constructs an argument that is framed around a web of scriptural texts linked together by shared key words. This web offers a systematic, point-by-point refutation of the opposing system of his opponent. Viewed in this light, Paul's argument from Scripture turns out to be less direct than many interpreters have supposed for the reconstruction of his own position. It deploys explicit scriptural texts, and also draws, slightly less directly, on a shared theology of divine kingship. The theology behind this argument turns out to be more apocalyptic than is usually thought.

Francis Watson, University of Durham
The Hermeneutics of Salvation: Paul, Isaiah and the Servant

John M.G. Barclay, Durham University
Why the Roman Empire was Insignificant to Paul

N. Thomas Wright, Church of England
Paul's Counter-Imperial Theology

Theme: Divine and Human Agency in Pauline Theology
Douglas Campbell, Duke University, Presiding
Susan Eastman, Duke University
Philippians 2: Divine and Human Agency in Christ's Story
J. Louis Martyn, Union Theological Seminary
The Newly-Created Moral Agent in Paul
Alan Torrance, University of St. Andrews, Respondent
Telford Work, Westmont College, Respondent

Essays by Francis Watson

Francis Watson, Kirby Laing Professor of New Testament Exegesis, Aberdeen (1999-) has (for a while) made available some of the papers he's given over the last few years. Watson, prior to coming to Aberdeen was at King's College London (1984-1999) is a New Testament scholar, who has also worked in the fields of Old Testament, systematic theology and Christian ethics.

The resurrection and the identity of Jesus, a paper prepared for a meeting at the Center of Theological Inquiry, Princeton (in September 2003)

Christ and Reality in Ephesians, a paper presented to the Later Pauline Epistles Section, Society of Biblical Literature, Denver (2001)

Jesus of History, Christ of Faith, a paper prepared for the working group on the Identity of Jesus, Center for Theological Inquiry, Princeton (September 2004)

Pauline perspectives, a paper presented to a Colloquium on Divine and Human Agency in Paul and Early Judaism, Aberdeen (August 2004)

Constructing a Hermeneutic: A Rereading of Romans 1-4, a paper prepared for the New Testament Graduate Seminar, Duke Divinity School (November 2004)

Scripture in Pauline Theology, a paper prepared for the SBL Pauline Soteriology Group, San Antonio (November 2004)

Theological exegesis of Genesis 18-19, paper prepared for the Society for Scriptural Reasoning, Denver, Colorado (19 November, 2001)

The Authority of Voice: A Theological Reading of 1 Cor 11.2-16, article from New Testament Studies (2000)

Douglas Campbell: A Bibliography

Douglas Campbell has been Assistant Professor of New Testament at Duke University (Durham, North Carolina) since 2003. He was formerly lecturer in New Testament at King's College London (1996-2003). Dr. Campbell’s main research interests comprise the life and thought (i.e. theology and its development) of Paul with particular reference to soteriological models rooted in apocalyptic as against justification or salvation-history. However, he is interested in contributions to Pauline analysis from modern literary theory, from modern theology, from epistolary theory, ancient rhetoric, ancient comparative religion, modern linguistics and semantic theory, and from sociology.

1992a.    The Rhetoric of Righteousness in Romans 3:21-26; Sheffield: JSOT Press.
1992b.    'The Meaning of PISTIS and NOMOS in Paul: A Linguistic and Structural Investigation'. JBL 111:85-97.   

1993          'Reconciliation "in Christ" according to Ephesians', in H. Regan and A.J. Torrance (eds.),  Christ and Context, pp.160-177, Edinburgh: T & T Clark.

1994a.   ‘Rom. 1:17 – A Crux Interpretum for the Pistis Christou debate’. JBL 113: 265-85.
1994b.    ‘Determining the Gospel through Rhetorical Analysis in Paul’s letter to the Roman Christians’. In Gospel in Paul: Studies on Corinthians, Galatians and Romans for Richard N. Longenecker, pp. 315-36. JSNTS 108. Eds. G. P. Richardson and L. Ann Jervis; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.
1994c.    'The Atonement in Paul'. The Anvil 11:237-250.

1995.     ‘A Rhetorical Suggestion Concerning Romans 2’.  In Society of Biblical Literature Seminar Papers, pp. 140-64. Ed. E. Lovering. Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press.

1996a.     ‘The fractured witness’ in Trebilco, P. J (ed.), Considering Orthodoxy: Foundations for Faith Today, Auckland: Colcom Press, pp. 63-68.
1996b.      'Unravelling Colossians 3:11b', NTS 42:120-132.
1996c.    (ed.) The Call to Serve: Essays on Ministry in Honour of Bishop Penny Jamieson, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.
1996d.    'Introduction: The Call to Serve Dunedin: An Account of the Appointment of Bishop Penny Jamieson', pp.15-31 and 'A Reformational Slogan on Mnisitry and Paul's Gospel of Grace', pp.51-72. In The Call to Serve, D. Campbell (ed.), Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.

1997a.       'False Presuppositions in the PISTIS CHRISTOU Debate (A Response to Brian Dodd)', JBL 116:713-719.
1997b.       'The Scythian Perspective in Col 3.11: a response to Troy Martin'. Novum Testamentum 39.1:81-84.

1998.         ‘The DIATHKH from Durham: Professor Dunn’s The Theology of Paul the Apostle’, in JSNT 72:91-111.

1999.         ‘Natural Theology in Paul? Reading Romans 1:19-20’ in IJST 1:3, pp. 231-252.

2000a.        'Paul in Pamphylia (Acts 13.13-14a, 14.24b-26): A Critical Note', NTS 46:1-8.
2000b.        'Some thoughts on the apostle Paul and ethics.' In More Than a Single Issue: theological considerations concerning the ordination of practising homosexuals, M. Rae and G. Redding (eds.), Adelaide: Openbook, pp. 77-94.

2002a     'An Anchor for Pauline Chronology: Paul's flight from "The Ethnarch of King Aretas" (2 Cor 11:32-33)', JBL 121.2:279-302.
2002b.     ‘The Story of Jesus in Romans and Galatians’ in Longnecker, Bruce W. (ed.), Narrative
Dynamics in Paul: A Critical Assessment, Louisville: Westminister John Knox, pp. 97-124.      
2002c.    ‘Towards a New, Rhetorically Assisted Reading of Romans 3:27-4:25’. In Rhetorical Criticism and the Bible, pp. 355-402. Eds. Stanley E. Porter and Dennis L. Stamp. Sheffield: JSOT Press.
2002d.      'Review Essay of Troels Engberg-Pedersen's Paul and the Stoics', IJST 4.3:338-346.
2002e.      'Apostolic Competition at Corinth?': A Review Essay of Michael Goulder's Paul and the
Competing Mission at Corinth', Journal of Beliefs and Values, 23.2: 229-231.

2003a.       ‘Reconciliation in Paul: The Gospel of Negation and Transcendence in Galatians 3:28’ in C. Gunton (ed.), The Theology of Reconciliation, London: T & T Clark, pp. 39-66.
2003b.          (ed.) Gospel and Gender: A Trinitarian Engagement with being Male and Female in Christ, London: T & T Clark.
2003c.          'The Logic of Eschatology: The Implications of Paul's Gospel for Gender as Suggested by Galatians 3.28a in Context' in Gospel and Gender, D. Campbell (ed.), London: T & Clark, pp. 58-83.

2005a.       The Quest for Paul's Gospel: A Suggested Strategy, London: T & T Clark.
2005b.        'Inscriptional attestation to Sergius Paullus (Acts 13.6-12) and the implications for Pauline chronology' JTS 56:1-29.

2006.          'An Evangelical Paul: A Response to Francis Watson's Paul and the Hermeneutics of Faith', JSNT 28.3:337-351.

Forthcoming.    The Deliverance of God: A Rereading of Justification in Paul, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.

Word-care in churches

Stephen Fowl's Engaging Scripture, which I quoted from in the previous post to this, is good. The chapter about Paul's comments in Ephesians on word-care and stealing is, as Hauerwas says, 'worth the price of the book itself.'

Fowl says that 'Christian interpretation of scripture is primarily an activity of Christian communities in which they seek to generate and embody their interpretations of scripture so that they may fulfil their ends of worshipping and living faithfully before the triune God.' (161). For this reason, 'Christian interpretation of scripture is to be a more or less continuous activity' and therefore this will often 'generate and result in further debate, discussion and disagreement' (161). This, as many can probably testify, can end up frustrating the goal of worship and living faithfully and in extreme cases be a cause of division; and so many churches avoid interpreting scripture to maintain 'unity'! Fowl argues that what is needed to see interpretation enhance rather than frustrate is word-care - 'word-care works to keep the arguments constitutive of Christian interpretation of scripture from becoming destructive of the life of the very community such arguments are designed to further' (164). Fowl goes on to argue that 'a care for words is closely tied to how its members hold their possessions' and so we find in the epistle to the Ephesians that 'verbal practices as truth-telling and edification are linked to the Ephesian's abilities to address stealing in their midst' (164-5).

The reason that stealing can happen presumses that the Ephesians do not priviatize their wealth and possessions from the public gaze. In Ephesians 4:25-5:2 Paul tells the Ephesians to put away falsehood and to speak truthfully to one another. Fowl asks 'why in the midst of a discussion about "word-care" does Paul raise the issue of stealing? Indeed, this verses seems so out of place that if it were removed from chapter 4 I don't think anyone would notice' (166).

Whatever the case stealing was happening and here stealing must refer to 'the numerous small-scale ways in which slaves might pilfer their master's goods. Those in the market place who use unfair scales or engage in price-fixing, and petty con artists might also fit the bill' and 'it may well be the case that those who were stealing were stealing from other members of the congregation' (167). The matter of stealing, according to Paul, is having a detrimental effect on the community's  ability to exercise word-care.

'For the reality of stealing to be as great a danger to the fabric of the common life of the Ephesian as lying or slandering one another, the lives and indeed the possessions of the members of the community had to be relatively accessible to other members of the community' (172). Possessions were located in th epublic realm rather than the private. Fowl says, 'it is a profound testimony to the poverty of the common life of most contemporary churches that Christians have so secured their possessions from each other that they can barely imagine what it might be to acknowledge openly, in the manner of Eph. 4, that Christians might steal (even from each other)' (172). Fowl goes on by giving an example of several people trying to share a fridge. What begins as harmless borrowing, can quickly turn into stealing, and 'under such conditions, disputes and arguments are bound to arise'.  Here you can understand, why Paul emphasizes the importance of word-care and practices of forgiveness, etc.

The privatization of our possessions and lives in our contemporary churches serves to show we are able to tell the truth and ask for and receive forgiveness. That is, we do not know how to do deal with conflict and arguments, and this is reflected in the privatization of our lives, to avoid such things. Fowl says, 'if contemporary Christians are to manifest the sort of word-care that is essential for their interpretation and embodiment of scripture, then they, too, will have to manifest the sort of common life that intimately connects issues of speaking with issues of wealth' (174).

It is not only the relationship of wealth to word-care, many other issues such as how to raise children, what one eats, how one participates in wider culture, etc will affect how able churches are able to foster and maintain word-care that builds up the common life, rather than frustrates or destroys (175). Fowl's concern is that if we contain to adopt 'the public/private distinctions operative in the larger culture, [we] will find it difficult and frustrating to cultivate the care for words that is essential for the debates and discussions which are crucial for interpreting scripture in ways that foster faithful life and worship' (176).

This is a serious argument which is a wake-up call to Christian churches to examine how they speak to one another and how they share and live their lives with one another.

Echoes linger in the air

Paul's readings of Scripture are transformative: by correlating God's word to Israel with the new circumstances of his churches and the context of his kerygma, he generates novel interpretations that nonetheless claim to be the true, eschatologically disclosed sense of the ancient texts... If the gospel is hidden in Scripture, Scripture must be undertsood as richly allusive in character, hinting the kerygma, prefiguring it metaphorically ... Echoes linger in the air and lure the reader of Paul's letters back into the symbolic world of Scripture ... Paul's readings of Scripture are not constrained by a historical scrupulousness about the original meaning of the text. Eschatological meaning subsumes original sense ... True interpretation depends neither on historical inquiry nor on erudite literary analysis but on attentiveness to the promptings of the Spirit, who reveals the gospels through Scripture in surprising ways. (Richard Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul, 1989, 154-156)

Household Codes cont ...

Google print is absolutely excellent. It's allowed to read almost every book which writes about household codes. It's interesting the variety of opinion. Most scholars think Paul (or whoever wrote Colossians) has borrowed the code from the social morality of Graeco-Roman culture, but there is huge divided opinion other whether Paul has substantially altered them or actually  ended up merely given them a Christian endorsement. The use of the phrase 'in the Lord'  (18, 20, 22) with reference to the behaviour of wives, children and slaves (notably the phrase is not used when talking about husbands, fathers and masters) feels theologically-lite and does not reflect the depth of argument Paul elsewhere employs.  If Paul did write Colossians you wonder how committed he is at this point to what he is saying.   

Household Codes

What do we do when scripture doesn't say exactly what we want it to say? I'm preaching this sunday on Col 3:18-4:1 where Paul (and there is a question whether Colossians is an authentic Paul letter) gives some practical guidelines for husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and slaves. That Paul talks in these binary oppositions seems to contradict with Gal 3:28, Col 3:11 and 1 cor 12:13 where Paul argues that they have been transcended, left behind through our participation in Christian in whom we are all 'one and the same'. So what do we do with these household codes that crop up in Paul and other New Testament letters? Can we simply ignore Paul at these points and look to other texts like Gal 3:28 where Paul seems to be more theologically-sound? One issue is with the household codes is their lack of theological grounding. They seem add-on extras, especially in the case of Colossians, they sit uneasily with the earlier sections of the letter, which argue for a radical transforming liberating gospel. Douglas Campbell argues that in the case of the household codes Paul derives his ethics from creation rather than redemption (The Quest for Paul's Gospel).  Walsh and Keesmatt in Colossians Remixed argue that Paul ethics are gospel-shaped, but you have to look for the hidden clues in the text - I wonder whether they if are not reaching somewhat, that is, to make Paul say what they want him to say. In any case the household codes in Paul's letters are an example of scripture's dissonance.