Jesus Have I Loved, But Paul? Chapter 3: Christianity as Community

Last updated on: January 11, 2012 at 12:20 pm by James F. McGrath

Jesus Have I Loved, But Paul? Chapter 3: Christianity as Community 2012-01-11T12:20:37-05:00 James F. McGrath

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.

With his new book Jesus Have I Loved, but Paul?: A Narrative Approach to the Problem of Pauline Christianity, Daniel Kirk attempts to mediate between Paul and those who view him with some degree of suspicion or distaste. This post is part of the blog tour being hosted by Baker Academic Press, and will focus on chapter 3 of the book. Click through to the blog tour hub site for other posts on the book and promotional giveaways!

Over recent months we’ve been studying Romans in the Sunday school class I teach, and there are definitely a couple of “Paul skeptics” in the group. Yet even those who tend not to like Paul’s writings have been finding the things he says in the last chapters to be ones that they can get on board with. Don’t think too highly of yourself? Don’t repay evil for evil? Not far from the teaching of Jesus at all. Perhaps one key to appreciating Paul if you are a “Paul skeptic” is to see where he goes with his theologizing, to see what the practical payoff is. And perhaps the challenge to appreciating Paul for those in that category is to make sense of why it can take Paul so many chapters to get there, why the lengthy theological introduction seems necessary to him as the foundation for the practice.

In his book, Jesus Have I Loved, but Paul?, Daniel Kirk does precisely that (among other things), and chapter 3 provides a particularly good example.

The heart of Kirk’s attempt to “redeem” Paul for those who love Jesus is what he describes as a “narrative approach.” A narrative approach to the Gospels may be familiar to many, but what might it mean to take a narrative approach to “the problem of Pauline Christianity,” given that the main evidence for Paul and his thought is in letters, not stories? Kirk’s approach might be described as more a form of narrative theology than narrative or literary criticism. It involves first looking at the life and teaching of Jesus as part of the story of Israel, placing Jesus within the broader narrative of Scripture. Kirk then seeks to place Paul’s theology and writings within the context and framework of that story, and focuses attention on Paul’s interactions with that story.

Chapter 3 is focused on “Christianity as Community.” If the proclaimer becoming the proclaimed is one of the big issues in the transition from the pre-crucifixion to the post-Easter period, the rise of the church is another. The challenges facing this movement (later to be known as Christianity) were significant as it encountered new challenges and opportunities in the inclusion of Gentiles (Paul’s role in which was significant – and so any Gentiles who are Christians really ought to work hard to appreciate Paul if they don’t already!) and in adapting to new cultural contexts and simply their growth in numbers.

Perhaps the best pull-quote in the chapter, summing up well not only the focus of this individual chapter but of Kirk’s approach as a whole, is found on p.62: “To be part of the church is to belong to a community whose identity is being molded into the shape of that people of God whose story is written on the pages of the Old Testament. And that story, in turn, is being shaped by Paul’s convictions about Jesus as the crucified and risen Messiah.”

The promises to Israel found in the Jewish Scriptures were about a community and, more than that, a family. There is a disconnect between the cultures dominant in the modern English-speaking world and the cultures that shaped the Biblical texts and their expectations (a topic of contemporary relevance which Kirk addresses, mentioning modern social media technology in the process).

Paul made a major contribution to the movement centered around Jesus and the family/communities shaped by the Jewish Scriptures, by reinterpreting the story of Abraham so that the story of his children was reinterpreted to include Gentiles as well as Jews.

What Kirk does in this chapter and in the book thus far – or rather, what he points out about what Jesus and Paul did – is significant, and two key points seem to me to particularly call out to be highlighted. First, Kirk’s emphasis on the narrative framework of the Gospels’ accounts of Jesus’ life and teaching can be viewed as making Jesus strange. Those who find Paul less appealing that the Gospels in some instances are adopting a principled stance based on deep familiarity with both. But in perhaps the vast majority, it is most likely the different impression has to do with the different genres of the Gospels and epistles, and the fact that the stories of and about Jesus are much more flexible, and susceptible to a Rorschach–test approach that may find deep meaning in the parables, but it is a meaning which is unlikely to have ever crossed the mind of the historical Jesus or the Gospel authors. And so while some have simply sought to address the Jesus-Paul divide by bringing Paul closer to Jesus, Kirk also approaches the matter from the other direction, showing that the seeming ease of intelligibility of the Gospels from a modern reader’s perspective may be something of an illusion. When placed in their historical, cultural and religious context, both Jesus and Paul may seem puzzling and foreign, as indeed they should if we have understood these writings correctly.

A second point that deserves to be highlighted, even though it is made in passing, is what Paul does with Scripture and traditional stories. That Gentiles in the household of Abraham needed to be circumcised is clear and unambiguous in Genesis 17. Paul defies the plain sense of Scripture to make a way for Gentiles to join the community (p.63). In including those who had previously been excluded, Paul does something that might be considered subversive with respect to Scripture. Jesus himself is depicted as transgressing purity and other boundaries in a similar way in the Gospels. And so when we consider not only what the texts say about Jesus and Paul, but what each was doing with the stories that they inherited, we can see an important continuity, one that offers a serious challenge to contemporary Biblicism. Both Jesus and Paul offer an example that calls us to follow them in reading Scripture subversively.

Chapter 3 of Jesus Have I Loved, but Paul? also directly challenges the popular way of reading the Bible individualistically, as about me, my salvation, my heart, my personal relationship to God. And in keeping with the book’s theme, Kirk shows how Jesus and Paul are united on this point against much contemporary Christianity in the English-speaking world.

This is an important book and I am not only happy to have been invited to participate in this blog tour, and to give it an enthusiastic recommendation, but also eagerly look forward to the conversations that I am sure it will continue to generate, not only during the rest of this blog tour, but much more widely.

Visit the blog tour hub (http://jesushaveilovedblogtour.wordpress.com/) for other posts about this book, as well as to enter to win a Paul book package for yourself!

Previous Post

January 11, 2012

Neo Tebowing

Next Post

January 11, 2012 Jesus, Criteria and the Demise of Authenticity

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 1 Corinthians 1 John 1 Peter 1 Samuel 1 Thessalonians 1 Timothy 2 Corinthians 2 Kings 2 Peter 2 Samuel 2 Thessalonians 2 Timothy academia Acts of the Apostles afterlife Akhaten Alcatraz American Academy of Religion Amos Anglican Arabic Aramaic archaeology art artificial intelligence astronomy atheism atonement Babylon 5 Baptists Battlestar Galactica Bible Biblical Studies Carnival biblioblogging Black Mirror Blade Runner Book of Job book review Buddhism Call for Papers China Christianity Christmas Christology Chronicles Coptic creation Daniel Deuteronomy Doctor Who Dune Easter Ecclesiastes economics education Eldad Keynan Enoch Seminar Ephesians eschatology Esther Evangelicals evolution Exodus Expanse Ezekiel Ezra fantasy Fringe fundamentalism Galatians games Ge'ez genealogy Genesis Gnosticism Gospel of Jesus' Wife Gospel of John Gospel of Judas Gospel of Luke Gospel of Mark Gospel of Matthew Gospel of Peter Gospel of Thomas Greek Harry Potter Hebrew Hebrews Hinduism historical Jesus history Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Holidays horror Hosea humor incarnation India inerrancy information literacy inspirational Intelligent Design Ireland Isaiah Islam Israel Italy James Jeremiah John the Baptist Jonah Joshua Judaism Jude Judges Judith Lamentations languages Latin Leviticus libraries literature Lord of the Rings LOST Mandaeans Mandaic memes Methodism Micah monotheism morality Mormons movies music mythicism NASSCAL Nehemiah new perspective New Testament news Numbers Orthodox paganism panentheism pantheism Patheos Paul and his letters Pentecostals Philippians Philippians 2:6-11 philosophy physics Planet of the Apes podcast politics Progressive Christianity Protestantism Proverbs Psalms pseudoscience racism religion Revelation Roman Catholicism Romania Romans Ruth scams science science fiction Secret Gospel of Mark Society of Biblical Literature Song of Songs Star Trek Star Wars Stargate Swahili Syriac Taoism technology Terminator The Handmaid's Tale The Hobbit The Matrix theodicy theology theory Timeless Titus tomb Torchwood travel TRON Uncategorized United Kingdom Westworld X-Files young-earth creationism Zechariah

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 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 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 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 February 2007 January 2001

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz