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9 - What Did Paul Think Is Wrong in God’s World?

from Part III - Paul’s Theological Discourse

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2020

By
Bruce W. Longenecker
Edited by
Bruce W. Longenecker
Bruce W. Longenecker
Affiliation:
Baylor University, Texas
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Summary

When Paul gave consideration to the issue of what was wrong within God’s good creation, he saw a consistently repeating pattern all around him. No matter where he looked, Paul observed relationships distorted by the on-going and ever-present quest for self-preservation, together with the consequent abuse of power that all too often characterizes that quest. Paul saw this same pattern of distorted relationality repeated in every area of life. This essay teases out the character of the relational distortion that Paul found lying at the heart of the problem that required God’s salvific intervention. Profitable advances into understanding Paul’s view of “the problem” can be achieved if we place our focus on a single motif: power. But that motif includes within itself at least two separate but interrelated phenomena that, for Paul, lie at the heart of all that had gone wrong within God’s good creation. Those two phenomena are: (1) the abusive application of power within patterns of dysfunctional relationship, and (2) human inability (or the lack of power) to offset those abusive applications of power.

Keywords

Paul’s soteriologyPaul’s anthropologyPaul and sinPaul and the lawPaul and Rome,
Type
Chapter
Information
The New Cambridge Companion to St. Paul , pp. 171 - 186
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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References

Further Reading

Beker, J. Christiann. “The Dilemma of Sin and Death: Equivalent or Disparate Powers?” In Paul the Apostle: The Triumph of God in Life and Thought, 213–234. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1980.Google Scholar
Brand, M. T. Evil Within and Without: The Source of Sin and Its Nature as Portrayed in Second Temple Literature. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013.Google Scholar
Croasmun, Matthew. The Emergence of Sin: The Cosmic Tyrant in Romans. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.Google Scholar
Dunn, James D. G. Chapter 3 in The Theology of Paul the Apostle. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1998.Google Scholar
Gathercole, Simon. “‘Sins’ in Paul.” New Testament Studies 64, no. 2 (2018): 143–161.Google Scholar
Gaventa, Beverly Roberts. “The Cosmic Power of Sin in Paul’s Letter to the Romans: Toward a Widescreen Edition.” Interpretation 58 (2004): 229–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harding, Sarah. Paul’s Eschatological Anthropology: The Dynamics of Human Transformation. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2016.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keener, Craig S. Chapters 1 and 3 in The Mind of the Spirit: Paul’s Approach to Transformed Thinking. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2016.Google Scholar
Longenecker, Bruce W. “Peace, Security, and Propaganda: Advertisement and Reality in the Early Roman Empire.” In An Introduction to Empire in the New Testament, edited by Winn, Adam, 15–46. Atlanta, GA: Society of Biblical Literature, 2016.Google Scholar
Longenecker, Bruce W. “Sin and the Sovereignty of God in Romans.” In Sin and Its Remedy in Paul, edited by Goodrich, John K. and Gupta, Nijay K., forthcoming.Google Scholar
Wink, Walter. Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Engagement in a World of Domination. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 1992.Google Scholar
Wright, N. T. “The Dark Side of Revised Monotheism: The New Vision of Evil.” In Paul and the Faithfulness of God, 737–772. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2013.Google Scholar

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