Epilogue: Saint Paul and Philosophy—The Consonance of Ancient and Modern Thought

Abstract

The sixteen essays in this volume reflect on, and discuss in detail important aspects of the threefold relation between Paul and continental philosophy, Paul and the Greco-Roman world, and Paul and political theology. Lookingb ack on these contributions,i nt his epilogue we wish to consider what conclusions mayb ed rawn from them and-by bringing these different interpretations into dialogue with one another-discuss what responses the volume mayo ffer to the line of inquiry set out at the startofthis project.Aswenoted in the introduction, our questions in this volume pertain first and foremost to the meaningand the impact of the notion of πίστις ("faith" or "belief")and Paul's πίστις language, both in the Greco-Roman world Paul inhabited and in the present-day philosophical discourse in which his letters are heavilyd ebated. In particular,w e are interested in how these two approaches to Paul's πίστις languagec an be brought into dialogue, and whether the essays in this volume indeeds upport ac onsonanceb etween ancient and modernt hought. The question of πίστις is as hared concern for all the contributions to this book, in which it is taken up in different ways and from different angles. Our introduction also suggested one specific direction the inquiry into the πίστις languageo fP aulm ight take, namelya ni nterrogation of πίστις or faith against the background of the (in)famous distinction, sometimes presented as an opposition, between faith and reason. How does πίστις,a nd the usage of this term in Paul'sl etters,i nt he Greco-Roman world, and in the present-day philosophicalreflection on Paul'sthought, relatet on otions such as reason, rationality,o rr ationalities?D ow ef ind an opposition, adifferent kind of relation or,perhaps, rather anon-relation since they belong to different fields altogether?If we consider how this more specific line of inquiry is addressed in this volume, we see asomewhat complex answer taking shape. The languageofπίστις in Paul and in the Greco-Roman world does indeed have an epistemological dimension; however,asT eresa Morgan argues in her contribution, it is also used in relation to other ethical, social, psychological, and spiritual dimensions, which are

The Mystery of Return: Agamben and Bloch on St. Paul’s Parousia and Messianic Temporality

“…I conclude by suggesting that the concrete implementations of this mediation perform their emancipatory function in so far as they assume the character of practical ethics, with the attention directed to the underprivileged and marginalised. Since the publication of the seminal work of Richard Horsley and other scholars of the Society of Biblical Literature (Horsley 1997), biblical scholars, historians and philosophers concerned with the relationship between religion and politics -between the sacred and mundane spheres -have paid increasing attention to Paul's letters and to his theology (see Heiden, Kooten, and Cimino 2019;Frick 2013). The recent publications in the series Paul in Critical Contexts, edited by Augsburg Fortress, provide a striking example of the fertility of the critical re-appropriation of Paul through the lenses of power, gender and ideology.…”