Apostle of Persuasion– Part One

Last updated on: February 25, 2022 at 1:24 am by Ben Witherington

Apostle of Persuasion– Part One 2022-01-20T16:32:59-05:00 Ben Witherington

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Certainly one of the most important and convincing books on Paul’s theology and rhetoric written in the last decade or so is James Thompson’s Apostle of Persuasion.Theology and Rhetoric in the Pauline Letters, (Baker Academic, 2020; 309 pages). I will certainly be using this book in my classes on Paul and on rhetoric as well. The book is fair, balanced, interacts with a good swath of the scholarly discussion of the last 30 years, and is comprehensive– dealing with the whole Pauline corpus. Henceforth, attempts to deal with Paul’s theology without recognizing it is being delivered in a rhetorical way to persuade various audiences will not be adequate.

Thompson is well informed about the state of Pauline scholarship, including some of the recent New Perspective views on things like ‘pistis Christou’. While he follows N.T. Wright in some respects (e.g. in regard to Wright’s discussion about exile and Israel and the relation of the. church to Israel) he demurs from the ‘faithfulness of Christ’ interpretation of ‘pistis Christou’ much as John Barclay does. One of the most important and distinctive things about this book is its emphasis that all of Paul’s discourse and rhetoric is in the service of the moral formation of those already Christians in order that they may be presented to Christ on the last day– blameless and acceptable. I think he is absolutely right about the telos or endgame of Paul’s arguments, and this means that even the most theological of arguments have ethical agendas and intend ethical outcomes. The famous Christ hymn in Phil. 2.5-11 is not just a theological exposition for its own sake, but is intended to provide an ethical pattern for Christians to follow, imitating Christ. This is why it begins ‘have this mindset which was also in Christ Jesus…’ Theology, ethics, and rhetoric are all in play even in the most theological of arguments.

Thompson does indeed do some detailed rhetorical analysis of Paul’s ethos, of his use of exordiums, narratios, propositions, arguments for and against, and perorations throughout his working from earlier to later Pauline letters. But as he rightly points out, the use of rhetorical devices and structures is not an end in itself, but rather in service of some very Jewish ways of arguing and very Jewish content, that common rhetoricians would not recognize or use. For this reason, early on in his book Thompson has chapters about Paul’s indebtedness to the Pharisaic tradition as well as to the earlier Jewish Christian tradition which comes from Jerusalem. He does not see early Christianity as an example of dueling banjos between more Jewish churches and more Gentiles one, or between James and Peter on the one hand and Paul and his co-workers on the other.

As Thompson says, notice how Paul basically assumes his audience has already accepted the basic kerygma, including Christological distinctives having to do with the last supper, the death of Christ on the cross, and his resurrection and appearances. Exactly. Which is not to say there were not some real differences of praxis, and to a lesser degree theological assumptions between Pauline churches and some other churches. But the old F.C. Bauer antinomies and polemics against the Jewishness of the Jerusalem Church as opposed to the assumed more Hellenized nature of the Paulines one is, as we would say in N.C., a dog that will not longer hunt. It doesn’t make sense of the NT data.

My hope would be that Thompson’s excellent study will become required reading going forward for those who care about understanding Paul and both his theologizing and his art of persuasion.

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February 24, 2022

Atheism on Trial-- Part Ten

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February 26, 2022 Apostle of Persuasion--- Part Two

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