On not asking Christian questions
James Crossley briefly raises the useful question:
one issue has long bothered me about the whole NP debate: are Jewish texts being read with Christianised categories and far too systematically? I mean this on both ’sides’ of the debate.
In part, I think it’s because most “historians” of Paul and early Christianity (to say nothing of Jesus) are still doing a form of disguised theology, either in favour of a more or less “orthodox” position, or quite frequently, against it.
I am not entirely convinced that Paul is primarily asking questions about salvation, although ideas relating to salvation end up forming part of his answers. What I think is at stake is one cluster of key questions, around which all the others revolve.
- How are we to be faithful to God?
- How do we see God being faithful to us?
- If Jesus is the pattern of both our faithfulness and God’s faithfulness, where does that leave the Law?
October 16th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
Good questions. I am tending towards what I think is a unifying version of understanding the ‘answers’ through the dialogue in the psalms. The table in the presence of my enemies: 1/2. Ongoing troubles (many of our own making), but ongoing presence (the reality of covenant), 3. Christ for me as mediator of covenant and presence, Christ for non-Christians as their servant and himself in the world, and Law as holy interaction from the kiss to the glass of water.