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

Module Three

Paul and Today's Church

Throughout the semester, we have been discussing the relevance of Paul's letters for today and the application of the letters in contemporary churches. Now as the semester draws to a close, this discussion of "then and now" will focus our work. We will consider how Paul's letters should or shouldn't:

  1. Offer an ethical center as we seek to bear witness to the hope that is in us as Christians,
  2. Inform our sense of church and church order, and
  3. Provide resources for our own identity as leaders in mission.

Debates

Each of the last three weeks will be built on one of these topics and our work will be to participate and judge debates on these three related resolutions:

  1. Pro or Con: Love is the center of Pauline ethics.
  2. Pro or Con: The Pauline letters support the full participation of women in ministry.
  3. Pro or Con: Paul is a good role model for missional leaders.

Debate Twice. Judge Once.

The debate format is labor intensive in that it involves checking small group forums and being part of a group that posts materials several days in a row. You do not have to do a lot of work every day, but you do have to check in every day. For this reason, your participation is required in only two of the three debates.

On the week you are not debating, you will only be responsible for reading one of the debates and judging who won it. Please sign up for two debates in the Forums section of our course site. (Sign up in the general forum, not your small group forum.) Sign up by Friday, November 12.

The schedule for each week of our debates is available on the Debate Information page.

Readings

For each debate topic, I have put one or two articles on e-reserve. As you build your arguments, however, think also about what you have read and studied throughout the semester. The debates are intended to help you synthesize the various sources you have been reading throughout the term.

Readings for "Love is the center of Pauline ethics."

Hays, Richard B. "Paul: The Koinonia of His Sufferings." In Moral Vision of the New Testament (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1996) 17-59. E-reserve .pdf file here. Also available in the Luther Seminary library.

Cousar, The Letters of Paul (Nashville: Abingdon, 1996) chapters 8 ("The Old Life and the New") and 10 ("Embodying the Gospel"), 116-33, 145-160. This is your textbook.

Perkins, "Paul and Ethics," Interpretation38 (1984) 268-80. Available on desk reserve or via the Homelab from the ATLA Religion Database as full text. For instructions on how to workaround the "can't print from homelab" problem, click here.

Readings for "The Pauline Letters Support the Full Participation of Women in Ministry."

Rowe, Arthur."Hermeneutics and 'Hard Passages' in the NT on the Role of Women in the Church: Issues from Recent Literature," Epworth Review, Vol. 18 no. 3, 1991. All rights reserved. p. 82-88.

Gerberding, Kieth. "Women Who Toil in Ministry, Even as Paul," Currents in Theology and Mission, 18 Aug 1991. All rights reserved. p. 285-291.

Hinkle, Mary. "The Usual Suspects," on a website that I'm preparing for a spring Lay School class. The site is not in great shape yet, but the six pages under the title, "The Usual Suspects" may help you.

Readings for "Paul is a Good Role Model for Missional Leaders."

Nissen, Johannes. "Constrained by the Love of God: Paul's Foundation and Practice of Mission," in New Testament and Mission (Frankfurt am Main; New York: P. Lang, 1999) 101-27.

Johan Strijdom, "A Model Not to Be Imitated? Recent Criticisms of Paul," Hervormde Teologiese Studies, 57 no. 1-2 (2001) 612-622.