Corpus-Paul

[Brian Tucker <music AT riverviewcog.org>]

Greetings

This is my first post to the list so provide any constructive input for
the future, as well.

Both Albert Schweitzer and Krister Stendahl see Paul’s sufferings, or
weakness, as the point where his Christian experience and his theology
meet. But their views of Paul’s experience of suffering diverge when
they deal with the question of the relation of Paul’s experience to the
experience of his readers.

1. Stendahl says Paul’s sufferings are specifically his, as an apostle,
and his understanding of these experiences is not to be taken as a
paradigm for all Christians. (Stendahl. Paul Among Jews and Gentiles,
40.)

2. Schweitzer claims the opposite, “Paul powerfully urges men, by the
self-revelation in which he lays bare his inner life, to embark on an
experience like his own. (Schweitzer. The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle,
148)

The difference between Schweitzer and Stendahl does not lie in differing
construals of how Paul understands his sufferings and weakness. Although
their exegesis is by no means identical, they are in agreement about the
importance of Paul’s understanding of his experiences of weakness for
this theology. Instead, they disagree on a question of hermeneutics, the
problem of the proper appropriation of Paul’s understanding of his
experience by the reader. 

What is the proper understanding of appropriation of 2 Corinthians
12:1-10?

Thank You
Brian Tucker, M.A.
Riverview, MI