Cosmology and Self in the Apostle Paul: The Material Spirit

304 Pages·2010·2 MB·English

by  Troels Engberg-Pedersen

COSMOLOGY AND SELF IN THE APOSTLE PAUL
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Cosmology and Self
in the Apostle Paul
The Material Spirit
TROELS ENGBERG-PEDERSEN
1
3
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Preface
ThisbookattemptstosynthesizewhatcanbeknownofPaul’soverallworld-
view, not least to be understood in concrete, cosmological terms, and to
connecthisworld-viewwithhisnotionofselfasthisemergesinhisaccounts
of his own conversion. What binds together world-view and self in Paul is
a constant focus on body and bodiliness. Building on an earlier work that
Iedited,entitledPaulBeyondtheJudaism/HellenismDivide(2001),thebook
argues that Paul’s world-view, which is certainly a Jewish, ‘apocalyptic’ one,
can be more fully understood when one sees that parts of it are also spelled
outbyPaulintermsofGreco–Romanphilosophicalcosmology,inparticular
thatofStoicism.Forinstance,inbothPaulandtheStoicsamaterial,bodily
notion of pneuma (‘spirit’) plays a central role. The book thus presents the
othersideofthecointhatIintroducedinanotherearlierwork,Paulandthe
Stoics (2000). Where that work focused exclusively on cognitive schemes in
Paulderived,soIargued,fromStoicethics,thepresentbookmakesasimilar
casebyfocusingonbodiesandamaterialworld-view.Inthiswayitcomple-
ments the earlier work and constitutes a kind of sequel to it. However, the
book also stands completely on its own feet and any relevant connections—
suchasseeingthecognitiveandthematerialaspectspreciselyastwosidesof
the very same coin—are fully explained where they come up.
The book has had a long gestation. It began in the spring of 2001 when
IspentasabbaticalasaFulbrightScholaratYaleDivinitySchoolandbegan
to study Paul’s language on the body. I also spent a considerable amount of
timeonitsideasin2003–7aspartofaresearchprojecton‘Philosophyatthe
RootsofChristianity’generouslysponsoredbytheDanishResearchCouncil
for the Humanities. Here I had the extremely fruitful opportunity of dis-
cussing the issues in a small group of cooperating scholars: Henrik Tronier
fromtheDepartmentofBiblicalExegesis,andthetwoPh.D.(nowpostdoc)
students, Gitte Buch-Hansen and Stefan Nordgaard Svendsen. I am most
grateful to all of them for what I learned during these conversations. The
book was finally written in its present form in 2008–9, when I again had
research leave, this time as part of a major project on ‘Naturalism and
Christian Semantics’ (2008–13) that has been generously sponsored as a
‘Centre of Excellence’ by the University of Copenhagen. I thank the Rector
viii Preface
of the University for this opportunity, and my ‘co-principal investigator’,
Niels Henrik Gregersen, and the various graduate students attached to the
Centre for stimulating discussions that have helped to sharpen my thinking
on all relevant issues.
During the first decade of this century I have given papers in a number
of places on issues pertaining directly to this book: the British New Testa-
ment Conference in Manchester (September 2001); conferences in Oslo
(October 2001), Helsinki (August 2003), again Oslo (November 2004),
Jena (September 2006), Aarhus (January 2007), and Rome (April 2008);
guest lectures at King’s College London (March 2002, hosted by Judith
Lieu),inDurham,UK(March2006,hostedbyJohnBarclay),andAberdeen
(May2006,hosted byFrancis Watson);at variousmeetings inthespringof
2007 and May 2008 of a research project led by Turid Karlsen Seim at the
CentreforAdvancedStudyinOslo,ofwhichIwasfortunatetobeamember;
the annual conference of the Society of New Testament Studies in Lund
(August 2008); and more. Papers directly relevant to this book were also
given at the annual meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature in Phila-
delphia (November 2005), Washington, DC (November 2006), San Diego
(November 2007), and Boston (November 2008). I am grateful to all those
who have listened and reacted to my various attempts on these occasions,
not least to Stanley Stowers with whom I have been discussing issues of
‘practice’ over all these years.
AsIsaid,theideaoffocusingonPaulandthebodybegantotakeformat
Yale in the spring of 2001. I had the wonderful chance then to get to know
the ‘new Yale’ in the field of the New Testament in the form of Harry
Attridge, Adela and John Collins, Judith Gundry, and a new group of
splendid Ph.D. students—all of whom reminded me of my first stay at
Yale in the autumn of 1988, which led to my earlier book on Paul and the
Stoics.Oneperson,inparticular,hasstoodouttomeatthe‘newYale’:Dale
Martin.ThisisnotonlybecausehehadwrittenthebookonTheCorinthian
Body (1995) which, I am sure, made me see in the first place the general
importance of the body to Paul, but also because our acquaintance, which
had begun already in the 1990s when he came to Copenhagen on several
occasions, led to further visits to Copenhagen through the next decade,
beginning with a Fulbright Professorship at the Department of Biblical
Exegesis in Copenhagen in the momentous autumn of 2001. Martin and
I have been discussing Paul endlessly over all these years and we shall never
agree with regard to philosophy and Paul. It remains a fact, however, that
Preface ix
I am constantly learning from his theoretical sophistication and enormously
gratefultohimforthewillingnesswithwhichhehasbroughtthebestofhis
greatcountrytoourshores.Asasmalltokenofthisgratitude,Idedicatethe
book to him.
Troels Engberg-Pedersen
Copenhagen
August 2009