"For through the Law I died to the Law"

~*~
-CIRCUMcision & The SPIRIT:
the Meaning of Pauline CONVERSION-
~*~

A very important line
of modern Pauline scholarship
regards Paul's conversion experience as PRIMARY
and derives ALL of Paul's reflections
from THAT Fundamental
Moment?
-
IN ITS
RELIGIOUS FORM,
this view is simply that Mashiach/Christ appeared to Paul,
and Paul drew the consequences
of this 'revelation'!
-
IN ITS
SECULAR FORM,
this way of thinking about Paul has been considered
most elaborately by Alan Segal in his
Paul the Convert.
-
Segal
applies insights
from the social psychology of conversion and argues
by analogy to modern conversion experiences
that only AFTER conversion to the new religion does the convert
IDENTIFY what "was wrong"
with her previous
religion.
-
IT seems to me,
however, that whether or not converts can account for
WHY the converted
or whether or not it is possible to predict
WHO will convert to another
religion, it is nevertheless the case that SOME social
or psycholgical factors MUST have prepared
the potential conversion or
mystical experience.
-
In Paul's case,
when it is possible to identify
a theme of critique of the previous religious system
which is plausible in itself -
in other words,
which corresponds to what we know of that system
and corresponds, moreover, to other contemporaneous critiques -
it seems to me a violation of Occam's razor to assume
that this critique had not motivated the conversion,
and not vice versa.
-
While the experience of being in the Spirit
as a mystical event is certainly essential in Pauline religion,
as my discussion of Galatians 3 below will show,
I do not think that Paul's own mystical experience
was unprepared for
by his past.
-
THE
principal area
of difference is
that I place much less weight on Paul's mysticism
than Segal does.
Although I am impressed by AS's argument that Paul provides
precious evidence for mysticism in first-century Judaism,
I am not persuaded that THIS is the primary explanatory category
for Paul's texts and
activities.
-
THIS is not to say that I deny
either the reality of Paul's mystical experience or its significance
within his religious life; ALL I would deny is its primacy.
For AS the experience of ecstacy was cardinal,
and the christological interpretation a LATER phenomenon of Paul's experience in a Christian community.
-
THIS leaves
somewhat unexplained
Paul's turn to that very Christian community,
which AS argues can be explained
through the psychological study of modern conversion experience:
"A convert is usually someone who identifies,
at least retrospectively,
a LACK in the world, finding a remedy
in the new reality
promulgated by
the new group."
-
MY problem is,
of course, with "at least retrospectively."
IF there were no perception of LACK in the world,
then WHY would the convert be a "religious quester"
to start with?
I think we MUST begin, then,
with the LACK,
that which I have called
the critique.
-
SINCE I do not
imagine that Paul was
'psychologically abnormal,'
I ask what were the cultural and social conditions
that LED Paul to have
such an experience?
-
None
of this, however,
denies the reality or the central importance
of the mystical experience as providing precisely
the solution to
the plight.
-
IN
an article
otherwise quite compatible
with the view of Paul adopted here,
AS writes, "Paul himself essentially is converted
by his vision of Christ from the perspective
of a Pharisee,
a right-wing one at that,
to a perspective that is more characteristic
of LEFT-WING Pharisees and
more 'Hellenistic'
Jews."
-
I find THIS
an improbable formulation
and strongly prefer a view which would perceive in Paul
a conflict to begin with, one which
his evident Greek linguistic culture
would have prepared,
which was resolved
by his conversion.
-
IN Paul, I argue,
the agony preceded the ecstacy.
Nevertheless,
no rich and responsible reading of Paul
can ignore the vital role that pneumaticism
does play in his thought,
the Spirit not only
as a hermeneutic principle
but ALSO as a vital force
and experience in
Christian life.
-
Finally,
next,
I wish to show
that THESE two aspects
of the meaning of 'spirit'
in Paul are homologous
and contribute together
to the production of
the SAME system
of meanings.
verliefd
engel
14 jun 2005 - bewerkt op 04 mrt 2008 - meld ongepast verhaal
Weet je zeker dat je dit verhaal wilt rapporteren? Ja | Nee
Profielfoto van Asih
Asih, man, 81 jaar
   
Log in om een reactie te plaatsen.   vorige volgende