Hurtado on Paul and the Continental Philosophers

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 11:09 pm by Ben Witherington

Hurtado on Paul and the Continental Philosophers 2015-03-13T23:09:36-04:00 Ben Witherington

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Paul and the (Continental) Philosophers

by larryhurtado

One of the luxuries of my “retirement” is that I have the opportunity to catch up on a few things that the press of other commitments previously prevented. One of my “catch up” efforts has been to dip into the “rediscovery” of Paul among some contemporary political philosophers, most notably Alain Badiou (Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism, 2003; French 1997) and also Slavoj Zizek, and, less frequently noted, Georgio Agamben (The Time That Remains: A Commentary on the Letter to the Roman , 2005).

Badiou’s book in particular stirred up a lot of interest when it appeared, and perhaps still more after its translation. Given its denseness of expression (some sentences I found utterly impenetrable), it’s mercifully short (111 pp.). But his basic point is clear enough: He posits a reading of Paul as a model for the sort of thinking that dares to offer a major re-ordering of the world. Though at the outset reassuring the intended readers (Paul’s “cultured despisers”, to borrow a term from Schleiermacher) that he finds the content of Paul’s religion completely incredible, Badiou argues that the procedure of Paul’s thought is inspirational. Specifically, he applauds Paul’s positing of a singular event (Jesus’ resurrection) as foundational for a radical message that transcends all the other religious and intellectual options of his time, and Paul’s readiness to stake everything on this event (which, Badiou emphasizes, Paul could only assert, not prove).

In my view, Badiou is correct to emphasize the centrality of Jesus’ resurrection for Paul, although I think he minimizes incorrectly the significance of Jesus’ death (too anxious is Badiou, perhaps, to deflect criticism of Paul from Nietzsche and others?). Badious aims to be commendably sympathetic to a figure whose core beliefs he doesn’t share. So, for example, Badiou (again, rightly, to my mind) stresses that Paul wasn’t a dour moralist, wasn’t a woman-hater, and wasn’t anti-Semitic.

But there are curious mis-steps. These include small ones, such as his mis-count of the number of Pauline letters that are pretty much uncontested as genuine (he omits that little gem of benign manipulation, the Epistle to Philemon). There are more serious ones, however, such as his assumption that Romans 7 is autobiographical and the heart of Paul’s letter to the Romans, the notion that Paul rejects as an inferior principle of life “law”, a failure to give due account of Paul’s strongly eschatological outlook, and (to mention one additional matter) his treatment of Paul as primarily concerned with the individual “subject” (whereas Paul was clearly concerned to form communities of believers, “ekklesiai“).

But, on the other hand, Badiou clearly spent a lot of time reading Paul’s letters. Indeed, it appears that he’s consulted the Greek text (commendable in a time when some would urge that PhDs in NT don’t have to do so!). It’s an interesting project, is Badiou’s little book.

At a conference held in April 2005 in Syracuse University, Badiou, Zizek, and a collection of religion-scholars engaged in a spirited discussion of these matters. The results appear in an interesting volume edited by John D. Caputo and Linda Martin Alcoff, St. Paul among the Philosophers (Indiana University Press, 2009). The interlocutors include Baniel Boyarin, Paula Fredriksen, Richard Kearney, Dale Martin and Ed Sanders.

Predictably (for those of us who know her), Paula Fredriksen is probably the most forthright and colorful in critique. For example, rightly observing that Badiou and Zizek fail to do justice to Paul’s apocalyptic outlook, she writes, “The sweep of eschatological excitement in the finale of Paul’s letter to the Romans is to the tempo of the Peri Archon [the theological work by Origen, 3rd century] what the Seventh Symphony is to Bolero” (70). Or how about this one: “If we as historians seek to understand how people in the distant past made sense to each other, then we have to work hard to reconstruct their world, not to project upon them concerns from ours. . . . . The dead are not our contemporaries, and if we think they are, we are not listening to them, but talking to ourselves” (72). And maybe just one more: “Thus, to respond finally to Badiou’s characterization of Paul posed in his first chapter heading–Paul: Our Contemporary–I would have to say, Yes. Badiou’s Paul is our contemporary. And that is precisely how we know that Badiou, in giving us his fresh reading of the apostle’s letters, has presented us not with a study of Paul and his concerns, but with an oblique self-portrait, and an investigation of concerns and ideas that are irreducibly Badiou’s” (92).

Ahem. Well, nothing convoluted there! Paula’s main point is well taken: That our first obligation to anyone is to try to understand them in their own terms, and to be very careful (and up front) if we try to appropriate their actions and thoughts as a basis for our own. I’d probably be a bit more generous to Badiou, as I think that he did make some effort to do this. His key problem was that he wasn’t sufficiently self-critical in the things he assumed about Paul and how to approach him. Despite his commendable efforts to read Paul (and not simply about Paul), he still seems to be working with (and through) the theologizing and philosophizing of Paul that characterized European thought for many centuries. He could have benefited his project considerably by engaging with Pauline scholarship, especially work of the last 40 years or so.

But, whatever the results, I’m personally always ready to applaud scholars from another field who make the effort to engage the figures, texts and phenomena with which those of us in NT/Christian Origins occupy ourselves.

For examples of other responses, see the following links:

http://theotherjournal.com/2010/10/19/the-highest-contradiction-the-dyadic-form-of-st-paul-among-the-philosophers/

http://www.politicsandculture.org/2005/09/14/alain-badious-st-paul-6/

Uncategorized

Previous Post

March 28, 2012

Let the Games Begin--- Hunger Games that Is

Next Post

March 30, 2012 Paul as an Object of Veneration-- Hurtado Review

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz