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December 7, 2008

‘All theology but a footnote to Paul,’ Barron suggests

It is not surprising that the most theologically astute pope in centuries should declare a year of St. Paul, for Paul is quite properly seen as the first great theologian of the Christian church. In fact, it’s been said that all of theology is but a footnote to Paul, a consistent reconsideration of the same questions that he asked and answered.

But who was this pivotal figure, and what precisely did he teach?

Paul was born Saul (Shaul) around 10 A.D. in the town of Tarsus in present- day southeastern Turkey. His parents were Jews of the diaspora, but he was brought up in a Hellenistic context, and he was a Roman citizen. Thus he combined in his person three of the major cultural streams of his time and place, which suited him perfectly to become, in time, the carrier of the God of Israel to the wider world.

Shaul probably received a decent classical education, studying the great texts of Greek philosophy and literature: Plato, Aristotle and especially Homer. We know from his letters that he had more than a passing acquaintance with the rules of formal Greek rhetoric. But the major formative influence on Shaul were the Hebrew scriptures.

When he was still a very young man, probably in his teenage years, he was sent to Jerusalem to study the Torah under the tutelage of Gamaliel, the leading rabbi of the time. This would have been akin to a promising seminarian today being sent to Rome for advanced studies.

In Jerusalem, Shaul’s life was undoubtedly centered around the temple and its traditions of liturgy and instruction in the law and the prophets. The Gospel of Luke recounts the story of the young Jesus tarrying at the temple and engaging the doctors in lively discussion. That would give us some idea of the world in which Shaul moved.

Though Gamaliel had a reputation for broad-mindedness, his apprentice seemed to move in the opposite direction, becoming, in his own words, “zealous for the traditions of his fathers.” The young, intense, religious fanatic: We know the type today only too well.

Going after Christians

As he moved into his twenties, Shaul was bothered mightily by the emergence of the nascent Christian movement. For a devout Jew of the time, nothing would be more repugnant than the claim that a crucified carpenter was the long-awaited Messiah, for one of the principal tasks of the Messiah was to deal with the enemies of Israel and to establish himself as Lord of the nations. Therefore, someone done to death by the Romans was about as unlikely a candidate for the title Messiah as one could imagine. And so, with his fanatic’s zeal, Shaul went after the followers of Jesus, going so far as dragging them from their homes and clapping them in prison.

The first biblical reference to Shaul is in the Acts of the Apostles, where he is described as presiding over the stoning of Stephen the first martyr: The killers, we hear, laid their cloaks at the feet of Saul.

Having gained permission to go as far as Damascus (quite a trip in those days) in pursuit of Christians, Shaul set off to the great city. On his way, something happened to him, something so extraordinary that it changed, not only Shaul, but the world. Here is how Luke describes it in the Acts of the Apostles: “On his journey, as he was nearing Damascus, a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’”

When Shaul inquired as to the identity of the speaker, he heard, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.” He was, almost immediately afterwards, baptized and began to proclaim the Messiahship of Jesus.

In his letter to the Galatians, Shaul, now Paul, recounted how, after this encounter with the risen Jesus, he went “to Arabia and then back to Damascus” and then to Jerusalem to see the apostles and finally back to Tarsus.

It was only after another three years that Paul set off on his first missionary journey.

Dithering Paul?

What was Paul doing during this somewhat dithering period of his life? I think he was trying to understand what in the world had happened to him. He didn’t repudiate his Judaism (in fact, speaking of the “conversion” of Paul, as though he had passed from one religion to another is deeply misleading); rather, he reconfigured all that he knew about Israel around the luminous person of Jesus crucified and risen from the dead. Law, Torah, commandments, creation, exodus, prophecy — all of it had found a new meaning and purpose in Jesus Christ. And this transfigured Judaism became the stuff of Paul’s teaching and preaching.

At the heart of the matter for Paul was the declaration of the Lordship of Jesus. Again and again in his letters, Paul uses the phrase Iesous Kyrios, “Jesus is the Lord.” It had a startling sense for a Jew of the first century, for “Lord,” Adonai in the Hebrew, was a privileged title for God himself. So when Paul says to the Galatians, “grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,” he is blithely placing the carpenter from Nazareth at the same level as the God of Israel. The rest of Paul’s theology is pulling out the implications of that still stunning claim.

Barron will continue his examination of St. Paul in the next edition of the Catholic New World. He adapted the text from a November Mission Chicago talk. Barron is the Francis Cardinal George Professor of Faith and Culture at the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary. For more of his writings visit www.wordonfire.org.