Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

corpus-paul - Re: Musings on Pauline studies in general...

corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Corpus-Paul

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Bob MacDonald <bobmacdonald AT shaw.ca>
  • To: 'Corpus-paul' <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Musings on Pauline studies in general...
  • Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2002 18:35:35 -0700


Steve Black wrote
>I think it was Mary Daly who said something like, "Who the hell cares what
Paul thought?"<

Jim West wrote
>>do we REALLY hear the voice of Paul in the many studies devoted to him or
do we merely hear the voice of his interpreters. ...<<

Here is snippet of a story. It is also a projection of one character's
thoughts onto another's letter. Gaius, (of Corinth) is responding to a
letter from his agent in Ephesus. Part of the reality, as Jim suggests, is
in the reader's response - but is this not also our reality when we hear and
respond: Shema Israel... And some measure of the reality is in the sender
also.

..................
Dear Titus
Parvulus delivered your note from Ephesus this morning. Thank you for the
reply. What a marvel a letter is. Though I have only a few words from you, I
sense an immediacy as if you were here with me in person. Perhaps it is not
the letter that is the marvel, but the human spirit speaking to spirit,
depth to depth. I remember Paul speaking before his death about being
present in spirit when the assembly was gathered. I wondered about this, and
now I understand better at least how Paul is present to us through his
letters.

If I know the presence of a human in this way, is it possible that this is
how one can know the presence of God also? Do we ever get letters from God?
Sounds odd put that way. Do we get a word from God? Perhaps I have found
something of the Spirit and presence of God through the words that I have
read about him.

.................
REF 1 Corinthians 5:3

I won't ask "who cares what God thinks?" But Paul has made a point about his
presence in the Spirit here that questions our limitations. "For--even
though I am absent in body, yet present in spirit--I have already judged the
one who did this, as though I were present."

Bob

ps - the rest of my little story is in http://bmd.gx.ca/foreign_beliefs.htm

mailto::BobMacDonald AT shaw.ca
+ + + Victoria, B.C., Canada + + +

Catch the foxes for us,
the little foxes that make havoc of the vineyards,
for our vineyards are in flower. (Song 2.15)
http://bobmacdonald.gx.ca






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page