NT2213 The Pauline Tradition: 1 & 2 Corinthians
 Mary E. Hinkle
Associate Professor of New Testament
Luther Seminary
Fall 2004

Week 2 | Sept. 13-17

Week 2 | To Do List and Links

  1. Complete the Hunt for Paul's Theology. | web version | print-friendly version
  2. Read this web page and Cousar textbook, chapters 5-8.
  3. Weblog. | what's this? | link to read weblog | link to post entry via Typepad
  4. Complete short paper on "A Contribution of Paul." | Tell me more… | Where's that stylesheet?

Theology by Way of Story

Borrowing from Richard Hays in an essay titled, "Crucified with Christ" (in Pauline Theology, ed. Jouette Bassler [Minneapolis:  Fortress, 1991] 227-246), I would say that Paul does theology out of a particular story.  Paul knows a story—and it is a biblical story—about God's connection to creation, to Abraham and his offspring, and to Christ and those in Christ, and Paul reasons from that story to his theological conclusions. The Hunt for Paul's Theology will help you find this story in Paul's letters.

Hays describes the main points of what he calls the "narrative substructure" of Paul's theology this way (this list is taken nearly verbatim from pp. 232-33 of the essay, "Crucified with Christ" in the book Pauline Theology vol. 1 [ed. Jouette M. Bassler (Philadephia & Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991)]):

  1. God long ago revealed, in his promise to Abraham, his intention to bless all nations.
  2. God sent forth his Son, Jesus Christ, in order to liberate people who were in bondage and to make them sons (and daughters) of God.
  3. Jesus achieved God's purpose through his death on a cross, a death which was simultaneously an act of obedience to God and a demonstration of love for those he died to save.
  4. Jesus was raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.
  5. Those who belong to Christ find themselves at the turn of the ages, living in the chapter between the story's climax and its resolution.  During this in-between time, the community of suffers, but it also has the Holy Spirit, a sign of community members' adoption.
  6. The community's hope is fixed on an event that still lies in the future of the story:  the parousia (or coming) of the Lord Jesus, when he will come from heaven to claim his people and transform them into his likeness, pronouncing judgment on the world.

What does this mean for Paul's theology?  Hays concludes that whenever Paul faces a problem in one of his churches, he thinks through the problem in light of this story.  Paul's theology and ethics are grounded in this narrative of God's action in history and the promises about the future implied in God's work to raise Jesus from the dead.  In Hays's words, "As [Paul] confronts pastoral problems in his churches, he responds to them by thinking through the situation in light of the story, plotting the community's place within the unfolding narrative" (233).  So, for instance, circumcision made sense at the start of the story, but it does not make sense for those living after Jesus has died and been raised.

Is it true?  As we read the Corinthian letters, let's try this theory on for size.  Can we find a narrative substructure, that is, a story underneath Paul's writing to the Corinthians?  If so, how is it informing or giving shape to what Paul says?  We will return to this question throughout the class.

Apocalyptic Theology
The connection between the narrative substructure of Paul's theology and an apocalyptic worldview begins at point 4 in the story, as Hays summarizes it.  Jesus was raised from the dead.  The resurrection is "out of this world"—ancients as well as moderns would agree on that—and as such it is a special revelation.  (The word apocalypsis in Greek means "revelation.")  It reveals God's will to give life to all those who are in Christ.

Sometimes in this class I have assigned an article by Leander Keck called "Paul and Apocalyptic Theology" [Interpretation 38 (1984) : 229-241]. (If you're on campus or using the Homelab, you can link to the full text of the Keck article here.) I decided not to require it this time since it's a tough read and I would rather you spent your time in Paul's letters by doing the Hunt for Paul's Theology. Even so, one of the helpful pieces of the article comes in a footnote by Keck on p. 234. There he remarks on four pairs of opposites that he sees in apocalyptic thought.

  1. The cosmic duality – In apocalyptic theology, there exist a radical distinction between heaven and earth, and heaven is to be preferred.  (Think about the Heaven's Gate cult, who watched the Hale Bopp comet and thought a spaceship would come and take them to the heavenly realm.)
  2. The temporal duality – An equally radical distinction exists between this age and the age to come, or "now" and "not yet."
  3. The social duality – Society can be divided into the righteous and the unrighteous.  (By the way, this is where many modern apocalyptic movements run amuck.  Their members begin to think they can recognize the righteous from the unrighteous.  From there, it is a short step to think that you might need to stockpile weapons for prevailing in a battle with the unrighteous.)
  4. The epistemological duality – "Epistemology" is a big word for the study of how we know anything.  Do we learn from (1) our senses and the world around us, or (2) from special, otherworldly disclosure of secrets?  In apocalyptic thought, one knows the truth by means of the second way of learning.  Everything about what is really going on is hidden, except to those who are given privileged revelation.

As we continue to read Paul's letters this semester, we will look for the ways he speaks of heaven & earth, this age & the age to come, the righteous & the unrighteous, and common knowledge vs. special revelation.