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  • From: "Elli Elliott" <elli AT kci.net>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: RE: Flesh and Spirit
  • Date: Wed, 1 May 2002 15:15:08 -0600


Bob MacDonald wrote:
> You asked what I meant by "the creative force of our language". My thought
> was just that the reduction of flesh to your suggested terms seemed too
> narrow for the range of usage of Paul's words. I also think, as I said,
that
> Paul was searching for a metaphor to express his gospel- Perhaps it is not
a
> creative aspect of language - but I think of it that way - as more than
> descriptive - since language creates us as we absorb its meanings. Perhaps
> the creative force has already happened when the metaphor is coined to
> describe it. A bit of a catch-22 I expect.

I hope I've explained that I'm not suggesting reduction but simply tracing
the development of the term in a different way that the usual start from the
theological conclusion (i.e. that Flesh refers to "sinful nature" or "human
selfish tendencies" or some other disembodies abstraction). These things do
layer in.

> I also do not think the body-soul commonplace is an adequate parallel to
> flesh-spirit. The soul is thought of as disembodied - exactly the opposite
> of the incarnate spirit. I am speaking of the common tradition, which I
> believe is inherited from Greek thought - but I may be guilty of
> oversimplifying.

You are in good company with many scholars. I would not suggest that
Paul's Flesh-Spirit dichotomy can be reduced to the Platonist body-soul
split, just that we'd be mistaken not to understand that it's part of the
mix he's drawing from. I think the notion of the wholeness of the body of
Christ's death and the life of the Spirit that comes in participation in it
is consistent with your insistence on the incarnate spirit.

Daniel Boyarin (See his book <A Radical Jew>... haven't got the
bibliographical details handy but it's not hard to find...) proposes an
interesting way of layering the connections in a theory starting from the
body-soul contrast applied to modes of scriptural interpretation. While I
was not convinced by Boyarin's analysis, I found it quite stimulating. You
might find it interesting.

I'm sure the Flesh-Spirit dichotomy will come up again on this list. It
rolls around a few times a year, and others have offered some cogent
comments, too. You might check the archives.

Elli

Elli Elliott
(The Rev. Susan M. Elliott, Ph.D.)
Pastor, Zion United Church of Christ, Sterling, Colorado
Pastor, Immanuel Congregational United Church of Christ, Brush, Colorado
Ph.D., New Testament and Early Christianity, Loyola University Chicago
elli AT kci.net
>





  • RE: Flesh and Spirit, Bob MacDonald, 05/01/2002
    • <Possible follow-up(s)>
    • RE: Flesh and Spirit, Elli Elliott, 05/01/2002

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