Comments on: The Apostle Paul, Community Organizer?

By: Dan Jr.

Dan Jr. — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 21:37:58 +0000

This was a very insightful observation. i referred my readers to it in a recent post on Community Diagnostics > http://danwhitejr.blogspot.com/2012/09/becoming-community-diagnostician.html

By: timgombis

timgombis — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 18:08:03 +0000

That’s just it, S. Many of our images of good words and roles (‘pastor’, ‘bishop’, etc.) are corrupted. That doesn’t mean we can’t use them, but in a sense I think it’s helpful to ‘try on’ various images and just see how they shed light on who Paul was and what he was all about.

By: bobmacdonald

bobmacdonald — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 16:52:23 +0000

I never finished Crossan’s book on the Historical Paul, but true to the mirror in the well phenomenon, my vote on who Paul is would be on the side of encouraging the obedience part of faith. I think Paul includes the intent of the Psalter in Romans. In that letter (3:13), he cites psalms from the beginning and the end and he is not so much ‘building community’ as he is ‘forming a people of mercy and loving-kindness in covenant’ through Christ Jesus, using Israel as the teaching point (‘written for our learning’) – just what the Psalms are about (Israel his parables – or dominions if you insist, Ps 114). Another strong theme throughout the NT and not foreign to Paul is purity / holiness, also evident in the Psalter (2 – Kiss with purity = holy kiss in Paul). Impurity cannot stand before the Holy One but the invitation to stand is nevertheless present – to all who fear (as Peter notes in the Acts).

By: S Wu

S Wu — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 12:35:23 +0000

Just two hours ago I was talking with a friend about your post a few weeks ago about what images we have of Paul, and now I saw your new post!

“Community organizer” (as you described it) sounds just right. I think in his letters we find plenty of materials that lead us to that conclusion. I was going to say that Paul was a pastor. But then today our images of a pastor (event coordinator, leader with a vision and purpose, etc) may well be very different from what Paul did as a shepherd of his “sheep”. I also think that the Book of Acts alerts us to the fact that Paul participated in the gathering of those communities because of God’s calling and vocation. I was going to say that Paul was a missionary. But again today our understanding of a “missionary” may well be different from the vocation of Paul.

I tend to picture Paul as someone who is interested in the formation of life-giving world-changing Christ-communities who seek to embody Jesus’ cruciform life in anticipation of God’s final renewal of the entire cosmos.