Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Reading Paul in post-Lutheran Sweden

2014; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 68; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/0039338x.2014.961200

1502-7791

Hans Leander,

Religious Education and Schools

AbstractThis article brings a contextual approach to Paul and Christian origins. By suggesting a way to re-imagine Paul in the context of a disestablished Lutheran church in a post-Lutheran and post-homogenous Swedish society, the article strives to contribute to contemporary Lutheran theology as well as to the understanding of Swedish identity. Even if the relevancy of this relatively new social context might seem obvious, it is far from obvious how it affects a Lutheran self-understanding. This emerging context, it is argued, challenges Lutherans to revisit the writer that meant most to Luther: Paul. Beginning with the Tübingen school, the article shows how Pauline scholarship has been characterized by a problematic contrasting between Jewish particularism and Pauline universalism. A similar contrasting, it is further shown, can be found in the so called New perspective on Paul. With special attention to the Pauline vision of unity in Christ (Gal 3:28) the article strives to move beyond the New perspective. By proposing a re-imagining of Jewishness as an open ethnic category, I suggest that Paul and Christian origins could be re-conceptualized in a way that is Lutheran, but that is also sensitive to issues of ethnic difference, margins, and belonging in contemporary Sweden. Notes1. For the significance of context in biblical scholarship, see among others, CitationCrossley, Jesus; CitationMoxnes, Jesus; CitationSegovia and CitationTolbert, Reading from This Place. CitationDuran, CitationOkure, and CitationPatte, Mark.2. The event was broadcasted on Sveriges Television on "Kulturnyheterna" as well as on the internet via SVT Play.3. As of 9 January 2014, the BBC News listed the speech on its website.4. CitationNeuman, Märkvärdiga.5. Some of which include Elisabeth Åsbrink, Göran Rosenberg, Leif Zern, and Stephan Mendel-Enk.6. CitationNeuman, Märkvärdiga, 40.7. For a small selection from the vast research on ethnicity, nationalism, race and religion, see CitationFenton, Ethnicity; Gunaratnam, Researching Race and Ethnicity; Ruane and Todd, "Ethnicity and Religion"; Eriksen, Ethnicity and Nationalism; CitationBhabha, "DissemiNation."8. CitationFenton, Ethnicity, 12–23.9. This is not to neglect the racism during European colonialism, when race was used as an allegedly scientific category. My approach is motivated by the realization that ethnic as well as cultural categories are unsafe since they can be, and indeed are used in racist ways. For an argument for the use of race in historical as well as contemporary social analysis, see CitationBuell, "Why This New Race," 13–21.10. The "stuff" entails notions of origin, kinship, bloodlines, and deep rooted notions and customs. As Fenton, Ethnicity, 73–90, argues, rightly, in my view, this is not a question of either-or. And as seen in Baumann, The Multicultural Riddle, 90–95, as well as in CitationBhabha, Location, 208–213, it is possible to combine notions of fixedness and fluidity as a dual discursive construction.11. Fenton, Ethnicity, 15.12. The use if this expression, however, is contested. See, for instance, the reactions against the public statement by Prime Minister Reinfeldt about the low unemployment among "ethnic Swedes." As of 31 March 2014, DN.se has an article about the statement that was published on 15 May 15 2012.13. Geary, Myth of Nations, 41–52. The use of ethnos to designate people begins with the Greek author Herodotos (fifth century BCE), who described various peoples (ethnē) and their concomitant tribes (genē). Later, and in connection to the Greek and Roman imperial expansions, ethnos also began to be used in a more stereotypical way to designate foreign and barbarous nations, hence the association of ethnic with foreignness that was mentioned above. There are also other Greek terms that designate people: dēmos, phylē, and laos.14. CitationHall, Ethnic Identity, 33, regards ethnic groups as dynamic and fluid rather than static or monolithic. Hall has been criticized by CitationKonstan, "Defining Ancient Greek Ethnicity," rightly, in my view, for having a too narrow definition of ethnicity. Both scholars, however, regard ethnicity in antiquity as a socially constructed phenomenon.15. CitationSmith, "Religion, Religions, Religious," CitationMason, Jews, Judeans, Judaizing, Judaism, 480–488.16. Mason, Jews, Judeans, Judaizing, Judaism, 480–488, discusses six different spheres in ancient thinking that correspond to the modern notion of religion. The weight given to ethnos is seen when he argues that the designation Ioudaios in antiquity was seen as an ethnos comparable to other ethnē.17. CitationBerger, Desecularization; CitationHoelzl and CitationWard, New Visibility.18. Quoted in CitationCatomeris, Ohyggliga arvet, 7 (my translation).19. This is not to deny the difficult situation for minorities that have been living in Sweden even longer, such as the Sami people and the Romani people.20. CitationFreud, The Uncanny, 123–34.21. It should also be acknowledged, however, that the law reserved a particular role for the Church of Sweden as compared to other religious communities, not least in terms of funeral services.22. CitationLuther, Galatians, 125.23. CitationBaur, Paul, 90.24. For a critical account of Western notions of the Orient, see CitationSaid, Orientalism.25. CitationMarchand, German Orientalism, especially pages 104 and 498.26. CitationWarneck, De protestantiska missionernas historia, 89–99.27. For the colonial heritage of Biblical Studies, see CitationLeander, Discourses of Empire, 305–21. For the anti-Semitic tendency in Baur's work, see CitationKelley, Racializing Jesus, 73–80; and CitationZetterholm, Approaches to Paul, 35–40.28. CitationMontefiore, Judaism and St. Paul; CitationMoore, Christian Writers on Judaism. See also CitationZetterholm, Approaches to Paul, 90–93.29. CitationStendahl, "Introspective Conscience."30. CitationStendahl, "Introspective Conscience.", 202–03.31. CitationStendahl, "Introspective Conscience.", 200, 204.32. CitationStendahl, "Introspective Conscience.", 206, 214.33. This suspicion is partly based on how CitationStendahl, "Introspective Conscience.", 215, understands the Pauline original as containing several elements to which contemporary readers can do more or less justice.34. CitationStendahl, "Paulus och samvetet," 62, 75.35. CitationSanders, Paul and Palestinian Judaism.36. CitationDunn, "New Perspective."37. CitationDunn, "New Perspective.", 106.38. CitationDunn, "New Perspective.", 102.39. CitationDunn, "Antioch," 5.40. CitationDunn, "Antioch,", 107–08.41. CitationDunn, "Antioch,", 107–11.42. CitationHodge, If Sons, 126–27.43. CitationWimbush, "Reading Texts," 103–07.44. CitationWimbush, "Reading Texts,", 104.45. CitationWimbush, "Reading Texts,", 106–08.46. CitationNeusner, Children, 3–4.47. For a similar critique, see CitationBoyarin, A Radical Jew. Boyarin, however, does not try to re-imagine Paul. Rather, Boyarin (17) argues, Paul's vision upholds "the Universal Subject as a Christian male."48. As I here begin focusing on the ancient context of Paul, I will translate Ioudaios as "Judean" and "Jew" interchangeably in order to signal the ethnic as well as religious dimension that the term Ioudaios encompasses. According to Mason, Jews, Judeans, Judaizing, Judaism, 489–512, since Ioudaios in antiquity was understood as an ethnos, it should be translated "Judean" rather than "Jew." He does not consider, however, that the designation "Jew" also carries an ethnic aspect (OED, s.v.). Also, unlike Mason who strives to isolate the ancient context from the present, this article is written from the assumption that the past always tends to be caught up in the present. Even if it is anachronistic to speak of Judaism as a religion during antiquity, there were certainly religious dimensions involved in being Ioudaios.49. Even if there are only two passages where ethnos is used with reference to Christ followers in the New Testament (1 Pet 2:9; Matt 21:43), Paul's writings contain recurring references to a shared descent among followers of Christ. In early Christian literature, the use of ethnic language is more extensive, especially in Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian. See CitationBuell, Why This New Race, and CitationHorrell, "Race."50. CitationBuell and CitationJohnson Hodge, "Politics of Interpretation," 247. The term ethnic reasoning has been coined by CitationBuell "Rethinking," 451, to refer to the set of rhetorical strategies that construe collective identities in terms of peoplehood.51. Ethnicity is here defined widely with CitationFenton, Ethnicity, 3, as "descent and culture communities," or to be more precise "the social construction of descent and culture." See the discussion above on the concepts ethnicity, nationality, race, and religion.52. CitationWan, "Diaspora Identity," 127.53. CitationBadiou, Saint Paul, 98.54. Here I take the phrase "male and female" (Gal 3:28) as alluding to the creation account where the gender division is part of the creation. As argued by CitationMartin, Single Savior, 77–90, the unity in Christ involves an elimination of dimorphic sexuality. I am not, however, persuaded by Martin's suggestion that the unity in Christ involves an elimination of femaleness and a retaining of maleness.55. CitationWan, "Diaspora Identity," 126–27.56. CitationBuell and CitationJohnson Hodge, "Politics of Interpretation," 249.57. CitationWan, "Diaspora Identity," 126.58. CitationBhabha has written extensively on cultural hybridity. See for instance CitationBhabha, "Third Space," 208; CitationBhabha, Location, 47–56.59. CitationHengel, Judaism and Hellenism, 311–12; and CitationEngberg-Pedersen, Paul Beyond.60. CitationWan, "Collection," 203. Cf. CitationWan, "Diaspora Identity," 123.61. CitationBaker, "Every Nation," 79.62. CitationBaker, "Every Nation,", 81.63. CitationBaker, "Every Nation,", 98–99.64. CitationBarrett, Acts, 121.65. CitationMetzger, Textual Commentary, 251.66. This is not to neglect gender matters in relation to conversion. For a discussion of circumcision (and lack thereof) in relation to gender, see CitationCohen, Jewish Women. See also CitationLieu, "Attraction of Women."