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Paul submerged?: a study of the content and possible origins of mainline post-Pauline theology

University of British Columbia

It is a commonplace of New Testament scholarship that the theology of Paul has been distorted or homogenized in certain late New Testament and early non-canonical Christian writings. This critical judgement implies the existence of a theological standard to which Paul has been conformed in these writings. It is the purpose of this thesis, first, to identify that standard, for which the coined expression "mainline faith" is used; and secondly, to trace its origins. The first purpose is achieved through an inventory of the teachings of literature often alleged to homogenize or distort Paul: within the canon, the Pastoral epistles, Acts and 2 Peter; outside the canon, 1 Clement and the writings of Ignatius and Polycarp. A search for patterns of agreement in our literature over against characteristic Pauline teachings shows the chief tenets of the "mainline faith" to be a strong stress on atonement, repentance and forgiveness of sins; a focus on morality as central to the gospel; an untroubled appropriation of Judaism as mere background to Christianity; and a stereotyped concept of unanimous apostolic teaching. These tenets are not diametrically opposed to Paul's central teachings, but cluster near the commonsensical, general and anthropocentric end of a continuum with Paul at the paradoxical, specific and theocentric end. On the second objective, with the exception of the stereotyped concept of apostolicity which is attributed to trends usually called "early Catholicism," the thesis concludes that the roots of the mainline faith can be traced back to the so-called "Hellenist mission" found evangelizing the Gentiles of Antioch at Acts 11:19 f. The thesis does not endorse all the details of a binary opposition between "Hellenists" and "Hebrews" as propounded by many scholars, but does argue that the Hellenists of Antioch were less Law-observant and more mission-minded than the Jerusalem church, and that the gospel in the form they preached i t was no mere "bridge to Paul"; it was rather an independent instrument of the evangelization of the Roman Empire even in Paul's lifetime, and survived beyond Paul's time to exercise a major influence on our literature and subsequent Christianity.

Thesis/Dissertation

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2009-04-30

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/7789

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University of British Columbia

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