Pauline Interpretation of Christianity: ROMANS

1. Pauline Interpretation of Christianity:ROMANS RLST 212/Div/Rel 3162 Tuesday, January 25, 2011

2. Today’s Schedule • 3:10-4:00 Introduction to Paul: 3 (three) Historical Pauls • 4:00-4:40 Roundtables Rom 1:1-15 • teachings about “Jesus as Christ”, and Paul’s relationship with the Romans • 4:40-5:30 Discussion of your Interpretations about “Jesus as Christ” and Paul’s relationship with the Romans

3. Quest for the “historical Paul” focusing on the undisputed letters • Yielded three different scholarly interpretations of Paul & his authority: • So very intense debate • Should we not be able to discern: • How Paul viewed himself? • How he wanted to be seen and understood? • The intention of his letter? • This is not easy to discern these… Thus the debate… • But ultimately, it does not matter!

4. TEXTUAL CHOICES • A Text/Discourse = Several Potential Meanings • Example: Lecture at Vanderbilt in 1986 by a white South-African scholar. • Intentional message: clearly expressed by the argument: join us in the struggle against apartheid and racism in South Africa; this is what many of us heard. • But is it the only message? The true one?

5. TEXTUAL CHOICES • But the African-American students heard a very different message. • To convince us: emphasized the plight of black Africans, describing them as child-like, in need of education, so that they will move away from their backward culture. • the demeaning metaphors and other figures of speech • Convey racism

6. Choosing most significant features of a text

7. 3 Kinds of Interpretive Choices: Theological Choices & Frame • Each biblical text has many possible meanings inscribed in the text • We have to make a choice • The intention of the authors is not necessarily the most significant

8. Quest for the “historical Paul” focusing on the undisputed letters • Yielded three different scholarly interpretations of Paul & his authority: • So very intense debate • 1) “Paul the Theologian” • along the line opened by Augustine, Luther; • 2) “The Pastoral Paul” • With similarities with the Paul of Acts; and • 3) “The Apocalyptic/Messianic Paul” • With similarities with Paul of Greek Fathers, Orthodox Churches, Charismatic movements, and liberation theology

9. Quest for the “historical Paul” focusing on the undisputed letters • Yielded three different scholarly interpretations of Paul & his authority: • 1) “Paul the Theologian” = when focusing on the theological argument of Romans as a self-conscious consistent theological presentation of his Gospel • 2) “The Pastoral Paul” = when focusing on the rhetoric of Romans = how it was crafted to affect its hearers/readers as a convincing dialogic discourse • 3) “The Apocalyptic/Messianic Paul” = when focusing on the convictions (self-evident truths = un-intentional, spontaneous), faith/vision, and the religious experience conveyed and presupposed by Romans as a religious discourse

10. Quest for the “historical Paul” focusing on the undisputed letters • Our interpretations in this seminar will yield different interpretations of Romans • At first, interpretations by others might not make sense to us. But rather than rejecting them off-hand as false or wrong, we have to ask: • Did the other reader focus on another aspect of the text than I did? • 1) rather than finding meaning in Romans as a logically consistent theological argument • 2) finding meaning in what is inconsistent because Romans as a rhetorical discourse aimed at convincing and affecting its audience can NOT be theologically consistent, because it sets in dialogue the different views of Paul and of his (envisioned) audience • 3) finding meaning in the figurative religious aspects of Romans because this religious discourse shares in a mysterious way (like a poem) a new vision, a new religious experience

11. Three Different Scholarly Interpretations of Paul = Different analytical/textual choices • 1) “Paul the Theologian” along the line opened by Augustine, Luther; • 2) “The Pastoral Paul” With similarities with the Paul of Acts; and • 3) “The Apocalyptic/Messianic Paul” With similarities with Paul of Greek Fathers, Orthodox Churches, Charismatic movements, and liberation theology • We will NOT debate which one is “right” or “legitimate” : the three are legitimate, historical • BUT we will acknowledge that we made or are making a textual or analytical choice: Reading Romans as either • -- A Consistent Theological argument • -- An Inconsistent Rhetorical Discourse or • -- A Religious Discourse

12. Different Contextual Choices PREDICAMENT (“Romans” in GBC) • Different kinds of predicaments 1) sinners are individuals making a mess of their lives by not doing God’s will = Forensic Gospel 2) sinners are Communities or social groups thatconfront and exclude each other Pastoral Gospel 3) sinners are people (both individuals and communities) in bondage under the power of sin/evilApocalyptic/Messianic Gospel

13. PREDICAMENT >>> Theological Choices about GOOD NEWS (“Romans” in GBC) 1) Good news that individualsinners against whom God is angry are justified-forgiven by Christ through faith= Forensic Gospel 2) Good news that excluded people (Gentiles) are now included by Christ as God’s people in the (New) Covenant (without excluding the Jews) Pastoral/Covenantal Gospel (= “New Perspective”) 3) Good news that people in bondage under the power of sin/evil are liberated by Christ from this bondageApocalyptic/Messianic Gospel

14. Forensic Gospel(e.g., Peter StuhlmacherRevisiting Paul’s Doctrine of Justification , Moo, Feb 1 and Gager Reinventing Paul , part 1 Feb 8 • Human predicament:People are sinners as individuals who are/were not faithful toward God (not doing God’s will) • They are guilty (and feel guilty) and should be condemned and punished by God, the righteous judge (as in a court, so “forensic”); fear of God • Humans are Under God’s condemnation; God is angry against human (God’s wrath); God views humans as God’s enemies

15. Forensic Gospel(e.g., Peter StuhlmacherRevisiting Paul’s Doctrine of Justification , Moo Feb 1 and Gager Reinventing Paul , part 1 Feb 8 • Human predicament: People are sinners Under God’s condemnation; • root-problem: LACK OF WILL to do God’s will and/or LACK OF KNOWLEDGE of God’s love. • Solution: a) Good News: Christ died instead of sinners; the Grace (forgiveness) of God; (vicarious death) • b) Sinners are justified (= not condemned) through “faith” in Christ (= “believing that” Christ died for them)

16. Pastoral/Covenantal Gospel : Jewett; Gager Reinventing Paul part 2 Feb 15 and N.T. Wright, Paul in Fresh Perspective , Jewett Feb 22 March 1 • Human predicament: • Gentiles are sinners, separated from God, because they arein rebellion against God and do not belong to the People of God (viewing themselves as rejected by Jews); • Jews also are sinners; they are not faithful to the covenant, separate themselves from God • Being Enemy of God; • angry against God; • suspicious of God (“God is unjust”; God is partial; God prefers & favors others) • and jealous of God’s people

17. Pastoral/Covenantal Gospel Jewett; Gager Reinventing Paul part 2 Feb 15 and N.T. Wright, Paul in Fresh Perspective Feb 22 March 1 • Root-problem: rebellion against God; anger against God (either as Gentile or as Jews) = LACK OF/WRONG VISION of God and of God’s people • Solution:Christ died to reconcile all with God [so that we will not be in rebellion/angry against God], by establishing a new covenant = new good relationship between humans and God and among humans • through the Grace of God all are called to be members of God’s chosen people; to be “children of God” • Gentiles as well as Jews are “justified” (made righteous) when through obedient faith they carry out their vocation (the purpose of their calling) as the chosen people sent by God to others… as Christ was for others.

18. Apocalyptic/Messianic Gospel e.g., Beker, Byrne, Käsemann, Patte, March 1, 15 • Human predicament:All (Jews and Gentiles) are sinners = separated from God by evil powers • the “power of sin” which keep them in bondage; • Idolatry which have power upon them as Powers, Principalities (engendering death) • By distorting their vision (darkening their minds) • Being oppressed by evil, idolatrous powers • Root-problem:a darkened mind; • either lack of/wrong vision, bringing about powerlessness (unjust oppression) • or powerlessness (lack of ability) = in bondage, bringing about a wrong vision

19. Apocalyptic/Messianic Gospel e.g., Beker, Byrne, Käsemann, Patte, March 1, 15 • Solution: Christ died and was raised from the dead in power to free people, today as well as in the past; he is the living Christ who today frees people from the powers of sin which keep them in bondage • “Justified” people become in turn instrument of justice; as “in Christ” they are members of Christ’s body through whom the resurrected Christ acts; freeing people from bondage; this is their vocation as “slave of Christ” and “saints”.

20. 3 Kinds of Interpretive Choices: Analytical Choices & Frame

21. Analytical Choices: “Romans” in Global Bible Commentary • Theological Argument– consistent argument - of the letter • philological historical-critical approaches • Pastoral/Rhetorical Discourse of the letter through which Paul seeks to persuade his readers to change their behavior (inconsistent, because presents also the readers’ view) • rhetorical and socio-historical analyses • Apocalyptic/Messianic religious discourse reflecting religious experiences and symbolic world posited by the letter; Paul’s convictions - not intentional; that which drives him (his convictions) and shapes his discourse (mythical structure of it) • methods of history of religions and structural studies

22. Roundtable on Rom 1:1-15; “Jesus as Christ”; or “Paul’s relationship with the Romans” • 1) In the session, the leader # 1 then Leader # 2 present briefly her/his understanding and a scholar’s (Moo’s. Jewett’s, or Byrne’s) understanding of the “theme” of what Paul says in Rom 1:1-15 about her/his “theme” “Jesus as Christ” or “faith” (theological choices) AND how this conclusion can be grounded in the text (analytical choices) = total 4 views • 2) Then ask the members of the roundtable what are the DIFFERENT teachings about the “theme” people have identified in their own report. Make sure to clarify the DIFFERENCES … what are you learning from others? • 3) Then IF TIME PERMITS discuss how these theological and analytical choices are related to contextual concerns that need to be addressed in believers’ lives (contextual choices)

23. Jesus Christ = God’s Son pre-existed, was incarnated, exalted. Forensic/Theological Reading of the Theological Argument • Rom 1:3-4 affirms in a traditional vocabulary the overall Christology that Paul holds and that he believes the Romans also share (or should share) with him. • The introductory clause, Romans 1:3a the gospel concerning his Son,posits Paul’s view that Jesus Christ is God’s Son. • Though the vocabulary is different from Philippians 2:6-11, Paul presents Christ Jesus according to the same theological pattern: pre-existence, incarnation, and exaltation. • He was God’s son (Rom 1:3a; Phil 2:6) before being born of David’s seed (as Messiah from the seed of David) when living in the human realm (according to the flesh, Rom 1:3b; Phil 2:7-8). • Following his death through his resurrection from the dead, he was exalted, established “Son of God with power” (Son of God as a source of power) and now lives in the realm of the Spirit (“according to the Spirit of holiness”), in such a way that hislordship, “Jesus Christ our Lord,” could be acknowledged by all and fully manifested (Rom 1:4; Phil 2:9-11).

24. Jesus Christ reconciles Jews and Gentiles: Pastoral Reading of theRhetorical Discourse • God’s Son embodied and resolves the tensions between Jews and Gentiles. • Paul cites in 1:3-4 a traditional creed known by the Romans, that expresses tensions between Jewish Christian and Gentile Christian forms of the gospel. • Focusing on the way these verses affect Paul’s readers in Rome, with Dunn, Jewett and Stowers, one can recognize Paul’s concern for the tensions between Jewish Christians and gentile Christians and thus • That he affirmed that the gospel is in continuity with the Jewish Holy Scriptures. • That he gently refers to this tension by taking carefully into account traditional Christological views expressed in a vocabulary which is foreign to him--rather than using his own vocabulary he uses a traditional vocabulary. • That he affirms that Christ embodied and resolved the tension between Jews and Gentiles in Christ own person • And in the call to serve and to represent him that Christ as Lord addresses to all of them,1:5-7.

25. Jesus Christ our Lord = Christ enthroned as Son of God in the heavenly sphere of power Apocalyptic-Messianic Reading of the Religious Discourse • Jesus Christ our Lord is the fulfillment of the type David and of God’s promises through the prophets: • Christ enthroned as Son of God in the heavenly sphere of power (Käsemann, 12). • “God has inaugurated the eschatological liberation … by setting up Jesus as messianic agent of the promised liberation” (Byrne, 39). • Jesus fulfills the type David, not only by descending from David according to the flesh, but also by being “‘installed’ Messiah in fact” (Byrne, 39), with full power as Lord (as the Davidic king is enthroned as Son of God, Ps. 2:7), • by being raised from the dead and entering into the new age marked as the sphere of his active reign in power as risen Lord (as fulfillment of Ps 110:1) • as Paul further expresses in 1 Cor 15:23-25, now, after Jesus’ resurrection, the Risen Lord is in the process of defeating the powers which keep humans in bondage.

26. FAITH (CDC ARTICLE) • 1. Faith as Faithfulness. God’s (Christ’s) faithfulness to God’s promises and Human faithfulness to God • 2. Faith as Trust:as trusting God Augustine = the faith by which we believe (fides qua creditur) • 3. Faith as Believing a Speaker’s Words (“Believing That”); believing in the words of Scripture. Augustine: what is believed (fides quae creditur), or the content of faith • 4. Faith as leading to true Knowledge “Believing in order to understand ” (Augustine; Knowledge is found through believing) or “faith seeking understanding” (Anselm; we need to understand/know what is implicit in faith) • 5. Faith as Movement toward, and Experience of, God. (“believing in” God or Christ) = “Knowing Christ, = Experiencing Christ As Lord…. Faith As Discovering Christ In Others (The Promise Of The Incarnation) • 6. Faith as Gift (from God) that puts believers in the right relationship with God

27. Faith /believing primarily refers to • Forensic /Theological Reading: faith = believing “in Christ” = believing something about Christ; in what Christ has done in the past (on the cross) • Pastoral/Covenantal Reading: faithfulness toward Christ and God as Christ was faithful to God and us in the past (on the cross) (emphasizing subjective genitive of “the faith of Christ”= faith that Christ had, the faithfulness of Christ; in 3:22) but also the faithfulness which holds together a community a group's assent to and participation in the gospel of Christ crucified and resurrected, a gospel that reveals the righteousness of God as transcending the barriers of honor and shame. (Jewett on 3:22) • Apocalyptic/Messianic Reading: faith/believing in Christ = Recognizing through the eyes of faith that the promises/types (that Christ’s cross and resurrection are) are fulfilled in our presentand submitting to God’s power as manifested in these fulfillments (“obedience of faith”)

28. Showing “Obedience of faith” to a Roman Legionnaire

30. ROUNDTABLE A:  “Jesus as Christ”   • LEADER: _Julie Carli__  (her interpretation vs   Moo) • LEADER # 2: Jonathan Baynham__ (his interpretation vs Jewett) • Iris AnKrom-Crittenden_ • Madeleine St Marie_ • Karney_ • Derek Axelson_ • Ross Stackhouse

31. ROUNDTABLE B:  “Faith” • LEADER # 1: Arden Henderson_ (her interpretation vs   Moo) • LEADER # 2: Jeremy Snow_ (his interpretation vs  Byrne) •  Julianne (Jarrett) Snape • Murielle Wyman • Jason Jones • Amy Lentz • Stephen Staggs • Logan Robertson

34. GOSPEL:Forensic/Theological(Stuhlmacher; Barrett; Bultmann; Cranfield; Dunn; Moo) • Good news about something which happened in the PAST, to be appropriated in the present, and with effects (salvation) in the future for individuals • message about Jesus Christ, the good news about salvation of anyone who believes it; a powerful news = frees believers from guilt/fear • Proclamation= preaching the message about Jesus Christ (about what Christ DID) about salvation of anyone who believes it;

35. GOSPEL: Covenantal/Pastoral/ (Gager; Wright; Stowers; Jewett; Fitzmyer) • Good news about something which happened in the PAST, to be implemented in the present, and with effects in the future for communities (the separation of Jews and gentiles, barbarians and Greeks, etc. has been overcome; needs to be implemented now, and is fully promised in the future) • as message about Jesus Christ that establishes a new (covenantal) relationship with God (= salvation); it powerfully affects, transforms our relationship with other people (thus honor and shame effects) • Living the gospel as the new covenant community, the new creation, an inclusive community, the body of Christ, open, inviting others (any other) in the covenant community

36. GOSPEL:Apocalyptic/Messianic Käsemann; Beker; Patte; Byrne; Campbell • Good news about something which is happening in the PRESENT, as a fulfillment of the promises contained in the past, and to be responded to through faith NOW IN THE PRESENT, and is a token, first fruits, of what will be fully accomplished in future for communities, although also for individuals • as message about the risen Christ with power that promises that IN THE PRESENT he does intervenes and saves people from the powers of evil, as those who have the eyes of faith can see and recognize. • Living the gospelby imitating Christ (Christ’s crucified, but also the risen Christ) one makes manifest the power of the gospel By joining in Risen Christ’s present actions

37. Next week: Roundtable on Rom 1:16-2:1 • Focusing discussion on three themes: choose one (sign up); several possible interpretations of each. • The teaching for believers today in a particular context about one of these: • the righteousness/justice of God • the gospel as the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith • homosexuality

38. The relationship between “obedience” and “faith” # 1 • “Faith” necessarily results in “obedience,” when faith is defined as “believing that”(faith as defined by its content; "believing that the message of the gospel as teaching is true"). • For the Forensic Theological Reading, if faith is genuine, it brings about an obedient life. • When faith is a trustful assent to the divine truth of the gospel proclaimed by apostles to whom it has been revealed, • acting according to this faith involves a submission to the demands of this gospel, and “obediently” living a life that follows its teaching. Evidence: • Romans, 1—11, the doctrinal part of the gospel, the content of faith, what the readers should believe; • Romans, 12—16 moral teaching --the “obedience of faith,” what the faithful readers should do in obedience to their faith

39. The relationship between “obedience” and “faith” # 2 • “Faith” necessarily results in “obedience,” when faith is defined as “trust” in the “faithfulness” of God’s promise (because God is faithful) and thus “trust” in God’s call to a certain ministry—call to be apostles, to be saints (1:7),etc. (8:28-33; 12:1-8). • For the Pastoral Reading, faith is a response to God’s call and election (see 1:1), or more broadly, to God’s call to be “saints” (1:7) as members of God’s people in the covenant (a call which irrevocable, 11:28) • Covenant broadened through Jesus Christ to include Gentiles. • this call is for a service, for a function. • Therefore trusting (having faith) in God’s call is also accepting to carry out this function “faithfully”, “obedience.” Thus faith without obedience, without carrying out this vocation, cannot be genuine faith.

40. The relationship between “obedience” and “faith” # 3 • “Faith” and “obedience” designate the same acknowledgement of the authority of God and Christ, when “faith” is understood as “slavery to Christ” (1:1) in the sense of being totally under the power of one’s Lord and Master. • For the Messianic Reading, “faith” is being put under the power of the Lord (Christ, or God) by God’s intervention, acknowledging the authority/power of the Lord upon one’s life, and thus it is also “obedience,” submitting to this authority/power of the Lord. • Here faith is first of all a “gift” from the Lord; one cannot have faith if it is not given through a divine intervention (a manifestation of God’s “grace”). Yet, faith is also a movement toward God, the humble submission to this authority of the Lord.

41. Jesus as Christ Forensic/Juridical • Christ is the savior: Christ’s death (2000 years ago), dying instead of us • Christ died for sinners; Propitiation through Christ dying/being punished instead of us: Vicarious sacrifice

42. Jesus as Christ Covenantal • Christ died for sinners; • Expiation = Reconciledhuman with God, by demonstrating God’s love for us, through his absolutely faithfulness to God and to us, which established a new covenant with God; • His death is a Passover Sacrifice Covenantal Sacrifice

43. Jesus as Christ Apocalyptic/Messianic • Christ died for sinners & was raised with power. • Redemption = freeing people from their bondage to evil powers/ aka idols that keep people under their power. Redemption Sacrifice

44. Authority • Authority means not sheer power but legitimate power. • Authority exists only insofar as those who submit do so by acknowledging the legitimacy of those who are in a position to use institutional or other power and/or to speak authoritatively. • In Christian thought, authority belongs first to God, then to Christ, then to those who are authorized by God and Christ (prophets*, apostles*)

45. Authority 2. How is the divine authority transmitted from Christ to Paul? • Paul’s authority because he has received the Gospel and has the true, orthodox teaching (1 Cor 15:1ff) was recognized by the Jerusalem church (Gal 1-2). Peter/Cephas, John, James). • Institutional authority: Paul has authority because he is recognized as a commissioned apostle; someone who is honored/saint (by contrast with shameful); as someone who can be trusted. • a charismatic authority. Paul’s authority based on being freed from bondage by the power of God “through a revelation/intervention of Jesus Christ,” (road to Damascus) = gospel.

49. Paul’s Metaphoric self-designation as “slave.” A “slave” is: • Someone owned by a master, and thus in bondage and totally at the mercy of this master; someone worthless, powerless, in an abject situation, with a shameful status (emphasized by the Messianic Reading); • Someone who, although in a low status, is a member of a household, and who, as a servant, acts in the name of his/her master for the sake of the household; someone totally defined by his/her mission in the name of a master (emphasized by the Pastoral Reading); • Someone who is unconditionally submitted to the will and authority of a master (emphasized by the Theological Reading).

50. Connotations of “Christ Jesus” in“Slave of Christ Jesus” emphasized • Christ’s power upon the “slave” (according to the first view of slave chosen in the Messianic Reading); • Christ’s mission which the “slave” prolongs in the name of the Lord (according to the second view of slave chosen in the Pastoral Reading); • Christ’s authority to which the “slave” voluntarily submits (according to the third view of slave chosen in the Theological Reading).