Review of Healing, Weakness, and Power

Audrey Dawson. Healing, Weakness and Power: Perspectives on Healing in the Writings of Mark, Luke and Paul. Milton Keynes, U.K.: Paternoster, 2008. Pp. xvii + 302. ISBN 978-1-84227-524-5. $38.00 paper.

How did Mark, Luke, and Paul understand the healing ministry of Jesus and its continued expression in the life of the apostolic church? This is the concern of Audrey Dawson, who writes from dual perspective of a consultant physician and a New Testament scholar. This results in a work that is broad in scope, exegetically sensitive, and thoroughly stimulating. Chapter one introduces the topic to be studied and discusses many of the problems associated with researching ancient conceptions of healing in the contemporary context.

Chapter two begins with a wide-ranging summary of views of healing and sickness within Jewish thought as a way to contextualize Jesus’ healing ministry. The Greco-Roman world is surveyed and she concludes that the practice of magic was a widespread phenomenon and that healing miracles conferred power on individuals and credibility for their religious framework. Dawson’s argument in this chapter is that much of Mark, Luke, and Paul concerning the healing ministry of Jesus and the apostles is consonant with the expectations, practices, and beliefs within the early Roman empire.

Chapter three focuses on the Gospel of Mark and its depiction of healing by arguing, from a narrative-critical perspective, Jesus is seen as a healer, who attracts both crowds and opposition but this healing activity is only seen prior to his passion. This ministry focus is then developed within the broader context of Mark’s Christological concerns in which Jesus’ weakness becomes a focus of the latter part of the Gospel (p. 66). Dawson further argues that Jesus passed the concern for healing on to his followers. Thus, healing ministry would in turn form a key component of their mission throughout the Mediterranean basin, a mission sourced in Jesus’ example of healing both Jew and gentile (p. 90).

Chapter four Dawson discusses Luke’s portrayal of the healing ministry of Jesus and the apostles in Luke-Acts. Luke’s narrative presentation differs in significant ways from that of Mark. For example, in Luke the healings also serve a pedagogical function (Luke 11:14). Also, Mark emphasizes the humanity of Jesus while Luke describes him “as the powerful, obedient Son of God” (p. 156). Moreover, healing is understood in the context of the revelation of God’s power and functions as a key component for the legitimation of the mission to the gentiles through the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 15:12).

Dawson argues, in chapter five, that Paul’s presentation of Jesus’ healing ministry is quite different in comparison to Mark and Luke. The source of this difference is Paul’s experience with personal illness in which he developed his theology of suffering and mission (2 Cor 12:7-10). Dramatic physical healings were thus not a central part of Paul’s ministry. Furthermore, Dawson understands Paul’s message of spiritual salvation to the gentiles to be an extension and his re-contextualization of the earthly ministry of Jesus which had emphasized physical healing.

Chapter six discusses the implications of the preceding study, reveals its findings, and brings to the fore the similarities and differences with regard to healing, weakness, and power in Mark, Luke, and Paul. Dawson’s work is particularly helpful in her assessment of Luke as one not writing as a physician (pp. 152-56) and locating the source of Paul’s reprioritization of the significance of physical healing within the life of the Christ-movement in his personal experience with chronic illness (pp. 198-203). This revised doctoral dissertation, done under the supervision of Andrew D. Clarke at the University of Aberdeen, provides a compelling reading of the differentiated and situational significance of healing within the earliest Christ-movement and makes a valuable contribution to New Testament studies.

This review originally appeared as:
Review of Audrey Dawson, Healing, Weakness, and Power: Perspectives on Healing in the Writings of Mark, Luke and Paul. (Milton Keyes: Paternoster, 2008). Bulletin for Biblical Research, volume 20, no. 1 (2010): 134-35.

Review of Introducing Paul

Introducing Paul: The Man, His Mission and His Message. By Michael F. Bird. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2008, 192 pp., $20.00, paper.

Michael Bird sets out to provide an introductory book on Paul’s life, thought, and writings in a way that is relevant and stimulating without being overly-distracted by “scholarly debates and complex technicalities” (p. 6). This is quite a challenge; however, Bird, who is a lecturer in Theology and Bible at Crossway College, in Queensland, Australia, admirably accomplishes this task in Introducing Paul. Chapter 1 is a fast-paced discussion seeking to answer the question, What is Paul? Bird’s answer is that he was “a servant of Jesus Christ” (p. 29). Furthermore, this chapter introduces the reader to various contested issues within Pauline studies, all structured around the image of Paul as a “persecutor, missionary, theologian, pastor, martyr, and maverick” (p. 28). Bird understands Paul’s greatest accomplishment to be his successful mission to include gentiles within the transformed understanding of the people of God. Chapter 2 briefly highlights the implications of Paul’s Damascus road experience, referred to as a conversion “to a messianic sect within Judaism” (p. 35 emphasis original). Bird provides a traditional Pauline chronology and then a description of the way Paul’s identity and theologizing were discontinuous with his Pre-Damascus road Jewish self-understanding and Pharisaic theology.

Chapter 3 presents a narrative substructure for a Pauline biblical theology. Bird’s topical review of salvation history provides the reader with key intersecting narratives that inform his epistolary discourse. His discussion of Adam and Christ is quite theological while his discussion of Israel argues the viewpoint that, for Paul, the church has replaced Israel as the people of God (p. 50). Chapter 4 gives a brief summary of the argument, structure, and framework of all the canonical letters attributed to Paul. Bird is a maximalist with regard to Pauline authorship of these letters (but see pp. 70-71 n.5). Chapter 5 provides a narrative-critical reading of the Gospel. Bird contends that for Paul, the Gospel is concerned with both the person and work of Christ. Furthermore, the Pauline stories in Rom. 1.1-4, 1 Cor. 15.1-5, and 2 Tim. 2.8, function as theological narratives designed to inform their auditors about God, salvation, and humanity (83). Bird draws from historic empire studies and the work of N.T. Wright to provide an informative discussion of the way the gospel was heard in the context of Roman imperial ideology.

The death and resurrection of Christ, which Bird understands as the center of Paul’s theological thought, is expressed through images and metaphors designed to explicate the significance of the Gospel. These concepts are introduced by Bird in chapter 6 and, when taken together provide a contingent discursive understanding of Pauline soteriology. The expressions covered by Bird include: righteousness, sacrifice, reconciliation, redemption, adoption, renewal, and victory. Chapter 7 offers a brief discussion of Paul’s eschatology and its importance for New Testament theology in general. Bird presents the “already” and “not yet” scheme, while also considering it plausible, based on 1 Cor. 15.23-25, that Paul expected a “messianic or millennial reign of Christ upon the earth” (p. 121). In Chapter 8, Bird presents Paul as a “messianic” monotheist who understands Christ as one “participating in the divine identity” (pp. 126, 128). This is an excellent of example of the way an introductory book can discuss important and relevant but often challenging conceptual material. The subject of Pauline ethics is the focus of chapter 9. Bird relies on the traditional Pauline “indicative” and “imperative” interpretive framework as a way to organize some of Paul’s teaching on the social implications of the Gospel (p. 136). Chapter 10 discusses Paul’s approach to discipleship and spiritual formation, which Bird refers to as “gospelizing”. In “gospelization”, individuals are formed in the shape of the cross and empowered by Christ’s resurrection (p. 162). The epilogue provides a reminder concerning the fragmentary nature of the Pauline discourse, the significance of his legacy within church history, and a clarion call to emulate Paul by living a missional life.

Bird has written a useful entry-level book for undergraduates, informed laypersons, and for ministers seeking to stay current within Pauline studies. His book sometimes presents only one side of rather disputed and contentious issues (e.g. the relationship of the church and Israel) and the influence of N.T. Wright is evident throughout the work. This book is recommended for those seeking to understand the contours of Paul’s thought in a way that is engaging, relevant, and highly readable.


Originally published as:
Review of Michael F. Bird, Introducing Paul: The Man, His Mission and His Message. (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2008), Criswell Theological Review, N.S. volume 7, no. 2 (Spring 2010): 119-20.

Reading Ephesians, Part 3

This is the final part of my review of Reading Ephesians by Minna Shkul, check here for part 1 and part 2. It is also published in the Journal of Beliefs and Values. See part 1 of this series for bibliographic information.

Chapter 6 provides the ideological paradigms necessary for the negotiation of social identity within the non-Israelite Christ-following community. The primary principle is that the community must replicate the holiness standards of Israel, which include distancing itself from the unclean identity and behaviours of the nations. This is achieved by social categorisation of both the ingroup (i.e. God's holy community), and the outgroup (i.e. those awaiting God's judgement); however, this occurs in an asymmetrical manner. The putative abolishing of the Law in Eph 2:15 indicates discontinuity with Jewish identity, while the call in Eph 4:17 to no longer live as gentiles problematises non-Israelite identity and leaves the community in a constant state of identity-liminality. The resolution, for Shkul, is in a third identity position: she concludes that 'Christianness is a primary identification that ought to characterise both values and behaviours of community members' (239). It is a social identification that is neither Jewish, nor non-Israelite, but one that is formed by the letter's social entrepreneurship, resulting in 'a cohesive community of God's people who manifest his holiness' (238). Chapter 7 provides a brief summary and conclusion to the work.

In a review this size, two brief evaluative comments are in order - one hermeneutical and the other social psychological. Shkul follows closely the work of Judith Lieu with regard to the reality- and identity-constructing power of texts and, likewise, Lieu's jaundiced eye towards the ability of scholars to reconstruct the historical context of/behind a text (2004, 9). While Shkul is right to note a lack of circumstantial content in the letter, it is not evident that the best hermeneutical choice is to resist any substantive reconstruction (181 n. 8). Ephesians undoubtedly constructs the cognitive framework of its auditors; however, it also reflects the social and political world of its author, and at least in a general fashion the world of its addressees. So, Shkul rightly focuses on the textual world, but there is some need for socio-historical reflection on the author and/or its auditors, otherwise it would be difficult if not impossible to assess whether or not Ephesians was successful in its social entrepreneurship (Tellbe 2009, 52).

The references to Jenkins' internal-external dialectic of identification (203) and to Pickering's 'sociology of the stranger' (234), with its concern for assimilation and difference, could have been strengthened by including Brewer's optimal distinctiveness theory (2003, 480-91). This would also allow for further refinement on the way identification with or rejection of key aspects of an ethical approach with its basis in Israel's scriptures interacted with the ongoing influence of non-Israelite social identifications (e.g. household and kinship structures). Shkul's Reading Ephesians provides a largely persuasive and theoretically complex social-scientific reading of Ephesians that draws extensively from social identity theory, social memory, cultural studies, and literary theory. It admirably achieves its goal of advancing 'Ephesians scholarship by a methodological evaluation of the construction of identity and community, long acknowledged to be formative to the thought of the letter' (240).

© 2010, J. Brian Tucker
Brewer, M. B. Leary, M. R. and Tangney, J. R. (eds) (2003) Optimal distinctiveness, social identity, and the self. Handbook of self and identity pp. 480-491. Guilford , New York.

Lieu, J. M. (2004) Christian identity in the Jewish and Graeco-Roman world Oxford University Press , Oxford.

Tellbe, M. (2009) Christ-believers in Ephesus: A textual analysis of early Christian identity formation in a local perspective Mohr Siebeck , Tübingen, Germany.

Reading Ephesians, Part 2

This post continues my review of Minna Shkul's Reading Ephesians, that I began in yesterday's post. Chapter 3 provides an Iserian 'wandering viewpoint' analysis of Eph 2:11-22, with a specific focus on 2:15, in order to determine whether or not Jesus was remembered to have abolished the Law completely or partially. Shkul concludes that Jesus abolished the Law completely (113); however, this should not be interpreted as an anti-Jewish interpretive stance. Jewishness provides autochthony and behavioural models for this non-Israelite Christ-following community, though its symbolic universe is reconfigured around the Christ-event. This is necessary because the community will be required to leave their existing Roman culture behind now that they are 'in Christ' (125). With regard to the partial continuation of the Law and previous social identities within the Christ-movement, Shkul acknowledges that 'multiple identities' and 'righteous gentile' constructs have textual support in the undisputed Paulines (102-5). However, she contends that there is no warrant for holding these positions in Ephesians where one overarching identity is the ideological perspective of this reformist, Jewish author, writing in the late first century CE. Shkul is quick to point out that often NT scholars acknowledge the Deutero-Pauline status of Ephesians, but continue to interpret the letter as if Paul had written it and it reflected a mid-first historical century situation (131). She provides warrant for rejecting that approach and suggests ways in which looking at Ephesians as a late first century document provide an evidentiary bridge between the early Christ-movement and the universalistic Christian identity that emerges during the time of Ignatius.

Chapter 4 uncovers Paul's reputation as the unique communicator of God's mystery, which is described as the inclusion of the gentiles in God's people, and as one who legitimates non-Israelite Christianness. The pseudonymous epistle presents historical reflections of Paul as a group exemplar who embodies the values and behaviours of the subgroup. These prototypical features also socially categorise both ingroup and outgroup and bring to the fore a rationale for rejecting any discourse opposed to that which has been legitimated by Paul's prophetic ministry. The primary ideological reforms evident in the construction of Paul's prophetic persona include the following two elements: (1) foreigners 'in Christ' are now accepted into Israel as God's people; and (2) the law no longer marks communal boundaries. The result of these reforms is what Shkul calls 'non-Israelite Christianness' (172). This ideological discourse contributes to the eventual separation between the Christ-movement and Judaism; however, the reputational construal of Paul should not be understood as an overt critique of the Jews.

Chapter 5 uncovers key theoretical perspectives that will be employed in the reading of Eph 4-6, which is to occur in chapter 6. The framework draws on key resources of social identity theory (e.g. positive ingroup assessment, social stereotyping, prejudice, and scapegoating). These provide interpretive clues into the social orientation of Ephesians with regard to the paradigms it provides for acceptable communal life (see Eph 4:17). Thus, Shkul is interested in discerning in Eph 4-6 the meaning of identity to the writer of the letter, and the way it communicates his approved communal behaviours, which have their basis in the group's social identification (184). This allows Shkul to minimise any need for conflict with outsiders, which has little to no basis in the text; rather, she fills a gap missed by other scholars by noting the way the text creates social distance, and, if embodied, may actually produce conflict with those outside the ideologically constructed ingroup (182).

This is part of my review published in Journal of Beliefs and Values 31.2 (August 2010): 238-41.

Reading Ephesians, Part 1

Reading Ephesians: exploring social entrepreneurship in the text

by Minna Shkul, London/New York, Clark, Library of New Testament Studies 408, 2009, xiv + 279 pp., 65.00 (hardback), ISBN 0-567-28777-7

This monograph is a slightly revised version of a 2007 PhD thesis from the University of Sheffield. Minna Shkul, currently a Research Fellow in the Explaining Early Jewish and Christian Movements: Ritual, Memory and Identity Project, based at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies in Finland, provides a sustained social-scientific reading of the Deutero-Pauline Ephesians, exploring its ideological manoeuvres, and the way it discursively constructs a distinctive Christianness for this non-Israelite Christ-following community in the post-apostolic era.

Chapter 1 orients the reader to Shkul's authorial position; she contends existing Ephesians scholarship has overlooked the level of identity negotiation and group-oriented processes evident in the text, in favour of historical reconstructions that have little if any basis in it. The way to make the negotiation of identity evident is through the heuristic device of social entrepreneurship, which deals with the way the discourse positions its readers, and the social values and processes it uses to accomplish its ideological and rhetorical ends (12). This rhetorical negotiation of identity will occur, not by seeking the 'world behind the text', but by identifying the various ways the text seeks to form identity by developing a legitimating discourse that provides the necessary ideological justification for the continued existence of this non-Israelite Christ-following community within the last part of the first century. The introduction argues that key aspects of Tajfel and Turner's social identity theory, as expanded through the work of Richard Jenkins, are evident in Eph 1 and thus provide warrant in continuing a social-scientific analysis of the Ephesians discourse. Being 'in Christ', as seen in Eph 1:3-14, provides the affective element (e.g. self-enhancement) necessary for the formation of social identity. Shkul sees the community positioned within the Jewish symbolic universe in a manner that transforms it to include room for Jesus the messiah and those who have been chosen to follow him. Thus, the community now has discursive models by which they may live separately from the broader Roman world, and an ideological justification for their existence as an identifiable sub-group, with its own cultural-discourse. The identity of God's people is now defined by being 'in Christ', and this new social identification questions the uniqueness of ethnic Israel's election and calling.

Chapter 2 provides Shkul's theoretical framework for reading the way Jesus in Eph 2:1-11, and Paul in 3:1-13, are remembered - readings that occur in chapters 3 and 4. Chapter 2 begins by continuing to critique Yee's work, especially in regard to his ideological construction of Judaism, and Gombis' binary construction of the law as God's enemy. She highlights Zetterholm's insightful work with regard to the emergence of the Christ-movement from Judaism, while Esler and Nanos provide further orientation with regard to the continuation of sub-group identities. Shkul's framework focuses primarily on communal legitimation and social memory. The discursive justification of the non-Israelite Christ-following sub-group's existence is a central ideological concern for Ephesians. Halbwachs' collective memory approach and the social context in which memory is recalled provide further complexity to Shkul's social entrepreneurship reading framework. This is also supported by a consideration of the way invented traditions and reputational discourse exert social influence in a text. Finally, the social constructionist and social memory framework is supported by insights from cultural theory and literary criticism. The focus in the former is that key material may have been left out, while the latter brings to the fore the work of Wolfgang Iser and the potential positions from which a text is interpreted, a perspective known as the 'wandering viewpoint' (78). Shkul provides a complex theoretical framework from which to discern discourses of communal legitimation, behavioural models, and identity negotiation nodes evident in a text.

This is the first part of my review of this book, you can read the entire review at: Review of Minna Shkul, Reading Ephesians: Exploring Social Entrepreneurship in the Text. (London: T & T Clark, 2009). Journal of Beliefs and Values, 31.2 (August 2010): 238-41.

Reading Paul in Context Book Notice

After coming home from our seminary graduation, I came by the Continuum website and they have published the notice concerning the Festschrift Kathy Ehrensperger and I edited in honor of William S. Campbell. If interested in seeing the chapters in the book, click here (link will take you to the Continuum website). I'll talk more about the book throughout the next few months.

The Deliverance of God, Part 1

I am reviewing Douglas Campbell's, The Deliverance of God: An Apocalyptic Rereading of Justification in Paul for a journal, and am enjoying it immensely. If you wish to search this book, it is available on Google books. Doug Moo reviews this book in the current issue of JETS (see bibliographical information below). Check out Nijay Gupta's initial thoughts on this work, they are somewhat similar to mine, though I will focus my review on the use of social scientific methods and identity issues. Check out a interview with Campbell by Michael Bird.

For those who are "seeking" (sorry for the pun, see 2009: 134) an orientation to this work, a few quotes may be useful. Some of these will be areas that I critique in my review.

“A single culprit seems to generate our difficulties, namely, a particular individualist – and so possibly also rather modern – reading of Paul’s justification terminology and argumentation that devolves into a conditional understanding of salvation (that is, salvation is granted in relation to individual actions).” (2009: 3).

“It is the conventional 'Lutheran' construal of the arguments of these distinctive texts, leading to an individualist, conditional, and contractual account of the whole notion of salvation, that arguably lies behind some of the most intractable interpretative conundrums in modern Pauline scholarship.” (2009: 6).

“The conventional individualist reading claims to deliver – often under the weighty authority of church tradition – the apostle’s definitive soteriological program – that is, nothing less than the gospel itself.” (2009: 7).

“This depiction of redeemed humanity is neither individualist nor corporate. The identity of the people involved is not defined fundamentally by way of reference to themselves, other key relationships constitute that identity.” (2009: 68).

“Justification theory views Judaism as a more specific version of the generic human condition.” (2009: 85).

“It is now apparent that not a great deal actually separates Sanders’s covenantal nomism from legalism in strictly theoretical terms.” (2009: 103).

“The Jew, as articulated by Justification theory, is a phantom, although the theory claims that that Jew characterizes all of pre-Christian humanity – a problem, to be sure.” (2009: 114).

“...sanctification is a theory of salvation, which is entirely self-sufficient.” (2009: 187).

Louis Martyn emphasizes “unconditionality and grace, on revelation, and on a fundamentally liberative soteriology, and this in terms of an inaugurated eschatological existence in relation to the entire cosmos.” (2009: 190)

Campbell argues that Justification theory, primarily based on Romans 1-4 provides a soteriological system that is fundamentally at odds with that which is presented in Romans 5-8. The latter is more transformative, apocalyptic, and participatory, and coheres better with Paul's arguments in his other letters.

Well, what do you think about Campbell's program? Any thoughts on these quotes?

I've been approaching identity formation from an apocalyptic perspective, an approach I call apicalyptic identity formationl; however, my approach to apocalyptic allows for more continuity than does that of Lou Martyn. Can one maintain apocalyptic in Paul and allow previous social identities to continue "in Christ"?

References:

Douglas J. Moo, "Review Article: The Deliverance of God: An Apocalyptic Rereading of Justification in Paul by Douglas A. Campbell," JETS 53.1 (March 2010): 143-50.

Louis Martyn, Galatians, AB 33A (London and New York: Doubleday, 1997).