Saturday, January 10, 2009

Revolutionary Subordination in Paul's Theology

Link: "Against Empire, A Yoderian Reading of Romans", by Ted Grimsrud at peacetheology.net

Big Ideas:
1. Paul reinforces Jesus' anti-Constantinian stance. "For Yoder, Paul does not lead away from Jesus’ messianic ethic. Jesus and Paul are not stage one and stage two of the development of Christian ethics that leads inevitably to Constantinianism. Rather, what is central to Jesus’ message remains central for Paul."

2. Justification in Pauline thought is social; justification in Romans and Galatians it is the same thing as reconciliation in Ephesians. Yoder says: "Paul cares not so much about systematic theological speculation about how human beings are to made acceptable to God, but rather the very concrete Roman situation in which Jew and Gentile, legalistic Christian and pagan Christian, needed to accept one another."

3. The Christian's relationship to the Powers is one of "revolutionary subordination". Christian community witnesses to the nations the truth and power of the gospel of the kingdom of God to free us from idolatry to the powers.


This idea of "revolutionary subordination" is something I'm interested in unpacking further. Also, I want to ask how my own socio-political context (as a privileged and empowered white male educated U.S. citizen who is registered to vote in a nation that affirms separation of church and state) affects my own application of Jesus' message to my present context. Surely there will be differences from Paul's context in the 1st century Roman Empire in which the state "church" was pagan worship of the emperor.


(There is nothing further to this post.)


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"Make me a channel of Your Peace."

-St. Francis


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