Sertillanges on balancing work and the intellectual life

I speak for myself here, but I know that many of us in the academic world, whether faculty or students, share a feeling of not having enough time to devote to the study, research, and writing which is such an important part of our sense of vocation. The demands of our jobs and the responsibilities of family life can easily consume all of our time and energy. Having the discipline to carve out time for research, and then having sufficient mental energy to be able to use that time well, are things with which many of us struggle on a daily basis. Being on sabbatical right now has heightened my awareness of this ongoing struggle in my own professional life, and also allowed me to gain some perspective on how I have failed and succeeded in finding this balance in the past.

French Dominican A. G. Sertillanges offers encouragement to people like me, who are not geniuses by nature and who do not have unlimited time at our disposal with which to pursue our writing. In his 1920 book La Vie Intellectuelle (English translation: The Intellectual Life available here), he discusses a number of topics that are pertinent to this blog and to academic life in general, including intellectual virtues, the intellectual vocation, and other very practical matters pertaining to how to use one’s limited time most effectively.

I intend to post some of his quotes here from time to time. Today I cite a passage from Sertillanges that connects with an earlier post on rabbinic comments about study. Writing of the benefit that can be gained by having to work for a living Sertillanges explains:

The discipline of some occupation is an excellent school; it bears fruits in the hours of studious leisure. The very constraint will make you concentrate better, you will learn the value of time, you will take eager refuge in those rare hours during which, the claims of duty satisfied, you can turn to your ideal and enjoy the relaxation of some chosen activity after the labor imposed by the hard necessity of getting a livelihood. (9)

Sertillanges goes on to conclude that if one can find as little as two hours per day, and can guard these well, and can use them carefully, then over time one can reap the benefits of one’s labor. The key is not to be discouraged by the little that is accomplished in one day, but rather to remember the amount that can be done with a consistent effort applied over a long period of time. Sertillanges reminds us that studiousness, courage, constancy, patience and tenacity play a larger role in this vocation than natural genius or ideal circumstances.

Those of us with limited time and limited resources, but called to some kind of intellectual vocation—whether formally or informally—can still learn to make the best use of the limited time we do have. That choice, at least, is ours.

New! Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Sciptures

Jim Davila has posted on his blog PaleoJudaica that Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: More Noncanonical Scriptures, Volume 1 (edited by Richard Bauckham, Jim Davila, and Alexander Panayotov) is now being released by Eerdmans. See his blog for more on the genesis and the progress of the project with its nearly 100 new texts and text fragments.

In short, for biblical scholars and students of Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity, this publication is very timely. As with the standard two volume collection of Old Testament Pseudepigrapha edited by Charlesworth, many of the texts and fragments published in this volume will allow for a richer understanding of how Jews of the Second Temple Period (and later) engaged with contemporary challenges by drawing on the resources of earlier traditions. This collection should also allow for further exploration of how traditions of discourse tied to an authoritative figure of the past continued to function in this period (on this, see the recent works of Hindy Najman, especially her 2010 Past Renewals: Interpretative Authority, Renewed Revelation, and the Quest for Perfection in Jewish Antiquity). Further, the widespread practice of pseudonymous attribution in early Judaism provides useful perspective on how similar dynamics may have been at work in early Christian writings, perhaps even in letters ascribed to the Apostle Paul.

With regard to my own publications and presentations on the Wisdom of Solomon, Psalms of Solomon, and the development of "Solomonic discourse" (Hindy Najman's term), I am particularly interested to see some of the further instances in which the composition of psalms and hymns is associated with the figure of Solomon. A larger collection of pseudepigraphical psalms may also shed more light on the use of psalms and hymns for instructional purposes (what I and others have called didactic hymnody).

 

For those heading to the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature next month, there will be a panel discussion in the Pseudepigrapha Section dedicated to a review of this volume. The session, Nov 25, 1-3:30pm, will include Judith Newman, Hindy Najman, Robert Kraft, Liv Ingeborg Lied, John Collins, and Jim Davila.

Some comments on N. T. Wright's “Paul and the Faithfulness of God”

The preface and first chapter of Paul and the Faithfulness of God (now available on the Fortress Press website prior to the release of the book on Nov 1) provide a helpful glimpse at the scope and approach of N. T. Wright’s impressive new volume. While we await the full volume, here is a brief assessment of the preface and introductory chapter.

Those familiar with the approach and style of N. T. Wright will find few surprises, as this work is the culmination of years of research and writing on the letters of Paul. Wright continues working with the concept of worldview and mindset, maintains the critical-realist approach of the earlier volumes in the series, and seeks to situate Paul firmly within his Jewish and Greco-Roman contexts. Those new to his work will find in these pages a helpful introduction to the larger field of Pauline studies, particularly in his overview of the history of scholarship on Paul (pp. 37-43), which is condensed from his forthcoming companion volume on the history of interpretation of Paul.

Using a familiar analogy, Wright lays out the “puzzle pieces” with which any reconstruction of Paul’s thought-world and theology must deal. Among the pieces of the puzzle: being in Christ; the cross; justification; christology; apocalyptic; salvation history; the spirit; covenant; the law; monotheism; and resurrection. (41)

In each of these areas, in order to assess their importance for Paul, we will need to have some sense of their significance within the broader world of early Judaism, as well as how Paul may have adapted or developed his own new perspectives on these topics in light of his encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. Given the complexity of first-century Judaism, as well as the limitations of our sources, this kind of work requires a good deal of caution to avoid imaginary constructs and generalizations against which Paul might be compared. Whether Wright’s picture is ultimately persuasive will require some significant engagement with the evidence he provides through the texts he exegetes throughout the remainder of the volume.

Wright, who is of course aware of these challenges, offers the following:

The main proposal of this book, then, which is advanced in Part III, is that there is indeed a way of analyzing and understanding Paul in which these several multi-layered dichotomies can be resolved, not indeed in a flat or simplistic way, but in that kind of harmony which often characterizes profound thinkers whose work not only touches on different topics but does so in different contexts and a variety of styles and tones of voice. (45)

The hypothesis I offer in this book is that we can find just such a vantage point when we begin by assuming that Paul remained a deeply Jewish theologian who had rethought and reworked every aspect of his native Jewish theology in the light of the Messiah and the spirit, resulting in his own vocational self-understanding as the apostle to the pagans. (46)

Using Paul's letter to Philemon as an example and a test case, Wright argues that messianic reconciliation across national, ethnic, social, and cultural lines is central to Paul:

The heart of it all, as already suggested, is koinōnia, a ‘partnership’ or ‘fellowship’ which is not static, but which enables the community of those who believe to grow together into a unity across the traditional divisions of the human race. This is a unity which is nothing other than the unity of Jesus Christ and his people – the unity, indeed, which Jesus Christ has won for his people precisely by his identifying with them and so, through his death and resurrection, effecting reconciliation between them and God. (16)

At this point one can readily applaud Wright for his efforts to situate Paul firmly within his Jewish context, as well as to consider how his location and mission within the context of the Roman Empire is significant for the development of his thought. The worldview/mindset approach allows for consideration of both of these facets in what I expect will be a deep and compelling way. Further, Wright’s concern to bring to the fore the challenging interrelationship between history and theology is to be affirmed as well.

While we should hesitate to offer any substantive critique of this volume based only on the first chapter, some of Wright’s comments cause me to wonder if he may underestimate the contribution that postmodern approaches to the study of Paul can make. I expect that Wright would agree that the kinds of questions raised by postcolonial, rhetorical, and feminist-critical methodologies can be useful tools even for those pursuing a more historical-critical and/or theological approach to Paul. Even so, it remains to be seen the extent to which Wright does or does not engage with the findings of newer critical methodologies as he examines Paul’s writings more closely in the chapters that follow.

In any event, readers can expect a challenging and rewarding experience looking at Paul through the lens of N. T. Wright’s massive volume.

Ignatius of Antioch and Early Christian Hymns

Image from www.ntcanon.org

Roman Catholics remember Ignatius of Antioch, the second-century bishop and martyr, on this day. For theologians and historians the letters of Ignatius provide a unique window into the development of Christianity in the early second century. To me, one of the more interesting aspects of his letters is his extensive use of musical imagery and his inclusion of several hymns in his letters. In this regard he continues the practice of the apostle Paul, who regularly utilized the language and content of early Christian worship to support the message of his letters, and to instruct his churches with regard to his understanding of the significance of Jesus (e.g. Phil 2:6-11 and Col 1:15-20). Here is an example of the kind of hymnody represented in Ignatius:

There is one physician,

both fleshly and spiritual

begotten and unbegotten,

come in flesh, God,

in death, true life,

both of Mary and of God,

first passible and then impassible,

Jesus Christ, our Lord. (Ign. Eph. 7:2)

[Translation from William R. Schoedel, Ignatius of Antioch: A Commentary on the Letters of Ignatius of Antioch (Hermeneia; Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985), 59.]

With its emphasis on paradoxical aspects of the incarnation, this particular hymn emphasizes both the human and divine foci of early christological reflection. It is likely that Ignatius was using this kind of language to counter the emerging threat of docetism, which held that Jesus only appeared to suffer and die as a human, but was really always and only fully divine. As is readily apparent, these kinds of early hymnic compositions move beyond those of the New Testament in terms of their philosophical and theological sophistication. Whether Ignatius composed it himself as a “quasi-creedal statement” (Schoedel) or is quoting an already known hymn, compositions like this show one way that theological reflection serves to meet the needs and challenges of a new generation: through adaptation in the language and content of worship.

For further discussion of the hymns in Ignatius, see my analysis in Teaching through Song in Antiquity: Didactic Hymnody among Greeks, Romans, Jews and Christians (WUNT 2.302; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2011), pp. 353-358. Portions of the volume can be viewed on Google books.

How did Jesus come to be acclaimed as "LORD"?

Wilhelm Bousset’s influential and groundbreaking book on the origins of Christianity, Kyrios Christos, which was originally published in 1913 and translated into English in 1970, has now been reprinted with a new preface by Larry Hurtado (Emeritus Professor; New Testament Language, Literature & Theology at the University of Edinburgh). Hurtado, whose own major work, Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Early Christianity (Eerdmans, 2003) is in close dialogue with Bousset (though he comes to rather different conclusions), has made his 19-page introduction available here at his blog.

For those new to the question of how and when it came about that Jesus was first called “Lord” and was worshipped alongside the Father by his early followers, Hurtado's introduction provides a fascinating historical perspective. While affirming Bousset’s impulse to set earliest Christianity within its historical context, Hurtado identifies a number of problems with Bousset’s conclusions:

• The problem of positing two theologically and culturally distinct early Christian groupings: “Palestinian-Jewish” and “Hellenistic-Gentile” (14). Even widening that to three divergent groups is problematic since the inter-relationships between early Jewish and Gentile Christian communities were much more complicated than such a framework allows.
• The failure to recognize the appropriate background of the title “Son of Man” (15)
• Bousset’s problematic suggestion that the Aramaic mara natha of 1 Cor 16:22 was later than, and influenced by, the Greek attribution kyrios (15-16)

In addition to the historical critique is the identification of the extent to which Bousset was writing in the context of a German intellectual framework which sought to minimize any connection between Christianity and Judaism. Hurtado cites two recent studies which have documented this troubling aspect of German biblical scholarship of the early 20^th century.

For its concise review of the impact of this volume and its attention to these critical points of ongoing relevance, Hurtado’s preface is well worth reading.

Rabbinic perspectives on finding the time to study

In my current project of seeking to identify some aspects of Paul’s thought which may be rooted in his Pharisaic education and training (cf. Phil 3:5), I can occasionally follow rabbit trails to interesting places. Looking up some references in the Mishnah I was reminded of the many references to the value of Torah study. Here are a few of the sayings from Pirke Abot that struck me from among the sayings of Hillel:

He who does not increase (his knowledge) decreases (it). (m. Abot 1:13)

Neither say, ‘When I have leisure I will study’; perchance thou wilt have no leisure. (m. Abot 2:5)

And if not now, when? (m. Abot 1:14)

While these are challenging reminders for those of us who want to pursue the life of the mind out of a sense of vocation, they also attest to the frustration that can come as we face the limits of our time and the pressing demands of our daily lives. For the rabbis, however, the need to work (i.e. have a real job) alongside the study process was regarded as a positive, not a negative. In that respect, I find the following comment most interesting:

Rabban Gamaliel, the son of Rabbi Judah, the Prince, said, “Excellent is the study of Torah combined with some worldly pursuit, for the effort demanded by them both makes sin to be forgotten. All study of Torah without work must at length be futile, and leads to sin.” (m. Abot 2:2)

Finally, Rabbi Eleazar offers an exhortation that is always timely, and that serves as a fitting end to this short post. In addition to being diligent in study:

know also before whom thou toilest, and who thy Employer is, who will pay thee the reward of thy labor. (m. Abot 2:19)

Mishnah citations taken from online translation by Gorfinkle available at http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/8547/pg8547.html.

Textbooks for "Paul and Early Judaism"

Though not yet available on the university bookstore website, textbooks for my spring 2014 class, BNTB 685 Paul and Early Judaism, are now decided. There are many excellent books we could have used, but I have decided to take advantage of the timing of the release of N. T. Wright's Paul and the Faithfulness of God next month to help shape our discussion. Thus, we will be working through the following two texts as we consider the letters of Paul within their Jewish contexts:

• N. T. Wright, Paul and the Faithfulness of God. Fortress Press, 2013. ISBN: 9780800626839
• John J. Collins and Daniel C. Harlow, eds., Early Judaism: A Comprehensive Overview. Eerdmans, 2012. ISBN: 978-0-8028-6922-7

PhD students who are taking this seminar at the doctoral level will read the texts listed above, but will also be required to read and report on an additional text:

• E. P. Sanders, Paul and Palestinian Judaism. Fortress, 1977. ISBN: 978-0800618995

In addition, I am recommending the following text for a general introduction to the variety of ways Paul is being read these days:

• Michael Bird, ed. Four Views on the Apostle Paul. Zondervan, 2012. ISBN: 9780310326953.

With these authors as our conversation partners, I am confident that it will be a challenging and fruitful spring for those of us who will be in this seminar together.

David Aune on Galatians 3:28 and the Problem of Equality

New Testament scholars in a variety of specialties will be pleased to see that a second collection of the essays of David Aune has been released this year by Mohr Siebeck: Jesus, Gospel Tradition and Paul in the Context of Jewish and Greco-Roman Antiquity. I will say more about this rich volume as a whole in a later post. For now I focus on the final essay of this volume, “Galatians 3:28 and the Problem of Equality in the Church and Society” (pp. 524-549), in which David Aune provides some important context for understanding the notion of equality in Christ that Paul outlines in Gal 3:28. The real heart of the issue is the extent to which Paul was only advocating a kind of equality coram deo (before God) in which all have equal access to the possibility of being “in Christ” but which has no significant impact in concrete social relationships; or whether Paul was suggesting that this equality before God must also be somehow physically manifested in concrete social relationships between males and females, slaves and free, Jews and Gentiles, within the churches.

To shed light on Paul’s views, Aune reviews the teaching and example of Jesus with regard to equality and the erasing of hierarchical distinctions. He also reviews contemporary Jewish and Greco-Roman views on each of the relationships of the Gal 3:28 triad: Jew/Gentile, slave/free, male/female.

Most illuminating is comparing Gal 3:28 with what Paul says elsewhere about these distinctions. Notably, in 1 Cor 7 Paul addresses each of the three elements of this triad of conventional hierarchies. Further, by reading Gal 3:28 in light of Paul’s conflict with Peter over table fellowship between Jews and Gentiles (Gal 2:11-14), Aune suggests that Paul fully expected that the abolishment “in Christ” of these conventional social hierarchies would be played out in practice in the real relationships of believers with one another. 

“The very fact that Paul thought national differences were irrelevant for those who belonged to the new people of God suggests that the two other areas of equality, ‘neither slave nor free’ and ‘neither male nor female,’ not only reflect equal status before God, they also signal changed attitudes toward others that ought to prevail in the life of the Church” (549)

Paul’s letter to Philemon offers another concrete instance of Paul’s expectation that being “in Christ” would have concrete implications in the relationships of Christians with one another. How the tensions this expectation created would be resolved is not so clearly addressed by Paul (at least not in the case of Onesimus and Philemon). Aune explains,

“While Paul does not resolve the tension that would have existed between those two quite different roles [i.e. being a slave in the flesh vs. being a spiritual brother in Christ], a transformation of social relationships is surely in view” (549).

Aune thus provides a helpful way of positioning Paul within his first-century context and within the context of early Christian writers. Paul, though surely influenced by the conventions of his day, points to a new way of relating to one another within the community of believers. The dynamic tensions inherent within these new ways of relating will, it seems, need to be addressed in the day to day lives of each new generation of believers who live within the social structures of the world but also find themselves “one in Christ Jesus.”

Francis of Assisi on Interpreting the Bible

In honor of St. Francis of Assisi (whose day is observed on Oct 4 by Roman Catholics), I provide here a brief selection from The Writings of Saint Francis of Assisi. In this excerpt from his “Words of Admonition,” we encounter a perspective on biblical interpretation that is quite relevant for this particular biblical studies blog, as well as for all Christians who seek not only to interpret but also to embody the teachings of Scripture in their lives. Francis offers both a warning and an encouragement:

 

The Apostle says, “the letter killeth, but the spirit quickeneth.” They are killed by the letter who seek only to know the words that they may be esteemed more learned among others and that they may acquire great riches to leave to their relations and friends. And those religious are killed by the letter who will not follow the spirit of the Holy Scriptures, but who seek rather to know the words only and to interpret them to others. And they are quickened by the spirit of the Holy Scriptures who do not interpret materially every text they know or wish to know, but who by word and example give them back to God from whom is all good.*

In the spirit of this excerpt, especially on this day, may we seek to know not only the words of Scripture and their meanings, but also how to embody the “spirit of the Holy Scriptures” in our words and deeds.

*Admonition 7 from The Writings of Saint Francis of Assisi, newly translated into English with an Introduction and Notes by Father Paschal Robinson (Philadelphia: The Dolphin Press, 1906). Available online at: http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=1172

 

Sarah Ruden's "Paul among the People"

I recently read Sarah Ruden’s Paul among the People (New York: Pantheon Books, 2010). In this volume Ruden, a trained classicist, examines several aspects of Paul’s writings by comparing them with ancient Greco-Roman writings. The topics she covers include perspectives on sin and sinful behavior, sex, homosexuality, marriage, slavery, and submission to rulers. In each case she brings clarity to Greek and Roman perspectives on these topics, and sheds light on Paul’s meaning by reading Paul against the Greco-Roman backdrop. In some cases, her readings are very plausible and provide much needed correctives to contemporary mis-readings of such passages (chapters 2, 4, 6, for example). In other cases, in spite of creative effort, the results are not as persuasive (chapter 5, on Paul and the state). Even in cases where her readings do not convince, she offers a rich treasury of primary source materials for contemporary readers of Paul to consider.

In this regard, Ruden is to be commended for her fresh approach to reading Paul in his Greco-Roman context. She seeks to defend Paul from negative interpretations and views such as she herself had previously had. As she began reading Paul in context, she writes,

It seemed to me that many reactions to him across the centuries had been distorted or incomplete in ways that would not have survived a look at his main contemporary and near-contemporary audiences through their own books. For every implausible reading of Paul, there were Greco-Roman works through the lens of which he showed more plausibly (4)

Ruden, in spite of having been what she refers to as a “knee-jerk anti-Paulist” (5), has a high view of Paul and his contributions to the history of Western thought. She credits Paul with foundational ideas that shape all of Western history: “no other intellect contributed as much to making us who we are” (xix). Nevertheless, she still seems to maintain some commonplace stereotypes of Paul: “His faults are obvious enough: his bad temper, his self-righteousness, his anxiety” (4-5). And “he never overcame his touchiness, his fussiness, or his arrogance” (26). On the buildup to 1 Cor 13 in 1 Cor 12:29-30, she writes, “The lecture is showing typical irritability” (171).  She seems to cast events and conflicts in Paul’s life in the worst light: “Paul is just not a nice guy” (183).

It seems to me that greater attention to another aspect of Paul’s Greco-Roman context might have helped Ruden position Paul even a little more sympathetically. Specifically, attention to the context of ancient rhetoric and debate, particularly the agonistic paradigm in which Paul wrote, could perhaps help to reframe those otherwise stereotypical ways of reading Paul. It may be that his apparent arrogance, bad temper, and so forth, as Ruden (and others) have perceived them, were simply reflections of how an educated person wrote to persuade others in antiquity (cf. the work of Margaret Mitchell). Sensibilities about how to persuade others in the first century were indeed quite different than our own.

Regardless of this omission about the significance of Pauline rhetoric, overall Ruden rightly appraises Paul’s approach: “The first efforts at setting Paul’s words against the words of polytheistic authors helped explain why early Christianity was so compelling, growing as no popular movement ever had before” (7). In coming to grips with the essence of Paul's message to his communities of believers, Ruden explains: “To those asking, ‘But how do we live, right here, right now?’ his answer was always in essence the same: ‘In a way worthy of God’s infinite love for each of you” (7). Ruden's volume provides some new perspectives on how contemporary readers of Paul can ask and answer that same question.

I hope this volume will also encourage its readers toward additional efforts to read Paul more fully within his Greco-Roman context.