Corpus-Paul

[Jeff Peterson <peterson AT mail.ics.edu>]

At 1:39 PM +1000 4/8/99, John Dickson wrote (edited):
>I am wondering, however, how much thought has been given to the radical
>'missionary' drive of Paul, well articulated in 1 Cor 9, and the influence
>this might have had on the way he framed his convictions in certain
>contexts. If Paul were a systematic theologian we might well demand of him a
>precision of language and ideas that ought not be demanded of a passionate
>proselytiser.

A classic exposition of the concern John draws attention to is Nils Dahl's
essay "The Missionary Theology in the Epistle to the Romans" (in his
_Studies in Paul_). I'm not sure, however, that PAQOS vs. LOGOS is the most
appropriate axis on which to plot the undeniable influence of Paul's
missionary arena on his theology; a proselytizer can be very deliberate and
premeditated in terms of approach, presentations to prospective converts,
etc. What is clearly not demanded, however, is precision of statement
sufficient to please a university theology examiner; in the field, one's
theology needs to be winsome enough to attract a critical mass of people
who will subscribe to it. What we have in Paul's letters are his ongoing
attempts to impress on those who so subscribed the implications of his
KERYGMA (as Paul himself saw them). So in thinking about the perennial
question of consistency in Pauline theology, we might be better off taking
Wesley's sermons rather than Thomas's _Summa_ as our analogy.

Jeff

------------------------------------
Jeffrey Peterson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of New Testament
Institute for Christian Studies
Austin, Texas, USA
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