Corpus-Paul

[Steve Black <sblack AT axionet.com>]

> I would like to enquire if it is allowed to even discuss on this list (or
> any related lists) whether Paul did (or even could) have actually received
> information from a resurrected Jesus or from angels.  It seems to me that
> to disallow this possibility completely shows a rather closed 'mind set'.
>
> I understand that in the current scientific age a belief in spiritual
things is looked on by some as a kind of 'mental weakness',...

I think this is a matter of context. Within a scholarly biblical 
discussion, I think the best we can do is to say that Paul *believed* 
he had revelations from "the great beyond" (or whatever). It is kind 
of like Jung's approach to religion. He took as factual the mental 
impression within his human subject and bracketed out the question of 
whether this content was "real" or not. It was a fact inasmuch as it 
actually existed *as* a mental impression. I see no other way of 
maintaining a scholarly conversation that will not deteriorate into 
an some type of confessionalism (or anti-confessionalism). Perhaps if 
the context for the discussion is not a scholarly biblical one - like 
perhaps one within the church - perhaps then this issues might be 
approached rather differently. Within this type of forum of biblical 
scholarship, I think we must stay with with what we can know and 
steer clear of metaphysical speculation. To do otherwise would 
certainly undermine the foundation of our shared conversation, and 
would certainly shift the whole focus of the conversation onto 
philosophical debates, which would be a serious distraction.
--
Steve Black
Vancouver School of Theology
Vancouver, BC
---

Once in a while you can get shown the light
in the strangest of places if you look at it right...

-Robert Hunter From SCARLET BEGONIAS