St. Paul among the Philosophers, or, Apostleship Envy

The apostle Paul gets a bad rap as the repressive, restrictive jerk who turned the hippie religion of Jesus into a metaphysical mess of religion about Jesus. Strangely enough, Christians seem to be the primary exponents of this misleading interpretation. But across the way in the realms of secular and socialist philosophy, Paul is enjoying a revival of sorts; and in some cases is even the object of envious longing. What gives? In this episode we offer a brief introduction to Paul (apostle, not Dad) and then Paul (Dad, not apostle) walks us through three contemporary philosophers' takes on this figure so important to the Christian faith.

 

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Notes:

1. Nietzsche, The Antichrist

2. Stuhlmacher, Reconciliation, Law, Righteousness: Essays in Biblical Theology and Revisting Paul’s Doctrine of Justification: A Challenge to the New Perspective

3. Bultmann’s existentalist interpretation of the resurrection is found in Theology of the New Testament and draws on Heidegger’s Being and Time

4. Käsemann, Commentary on Romans

5. Stendahl, Paul among Jews and Gentiles

6. Dunn, “The New Perspective on Paul,” Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 65 (1983): 95–122

7. J. Louis Martyn, Galatians

8. N. T. Wright, The Climax of the Covenant: Christ and the Law in Pauline Theology

9. Žižek and Millbank, The Monstrosity of Christ: Paradox or Dialectic?

10. Badiou, Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism

11. Dad co-authored a book with Brent Adkins called Rethinking Theology and Philosophy with Deleuze which deals with some of these thinkers

12. Agamben, The Time That Remains

13. Benjamin and Agamben, Towards the Critique of Violence

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