Paul's Summons to Messianic Life: Political Theology and the Coming Awakening

by L. Welborn

Overview

Taubes, Badiou, Agamben, Žižek, Reinhard, and Santner have found in the Apostle Paul's emphasis on neighbor-love a positive paradigm for politics. By thoroughly reexamining Pauline eschatology, L. L. Welborn suggests that neighbor-love depends upon an orientation toward the messianic event, which Paul describes as the "now time" and which he imagines as "awakening." Welborn compares the Pauline dialectic of awakening to attempts by Hellenistic philosophers to rouse their contemporaries from moral lethargy and to the Marxist idea of class consciousness, emphasizing the apostle's radical spirit and moral relevance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231171311
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	05/12/2015
Series:	Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	152
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 7.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

L. L. Welborn is professor of New Testament and early Christianity at Fordham University.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Neighbor (a)
2. Kairos (b)
3. Awakening (c)
4. Awakening (c')
5. Kairos (b')
6. Neighbor (a')
7. Coda
Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

A provocative sociopolitical analysis of Paul's letters.... Recommended.

Choice

Paul's Summons to Messianic Life should spark a lively and far-reaching debate in both departments of religion and philosophy that might indeed make Paul 'legible' in entirely new ways.

Brigitte Kahl

A courageous and welcome grappling with contemporary philosophers by a New Testament scholar who has expertise in the history, languages, and methodologies of reading Paul. Paul's Summons to Messianic Life reminds us of the relevance of New Testament scholarship to important contemporary debates on universalism, time, and even political action.

Laura Nasrallah

A manifesto for a Paulinism received histories have strategically forgotten, Welborn's book presents a compelling rethinking of the historical Paul in ancient contexts that substantially transforms the way we hear Paul in recent theoretical or philosophical conversations.

Ward Blanton

An interesting read that offers food for thought.

Journal of Theological Studies

[I] eagerly await a sequel and recommend this book to anyone interested in the contemporary political implications of St. Paul's theology.

Journal of Church and State

Welborn provides a great service to readers and interpreters of Romans with Paul’s Summons to Messianic Life. . . . This book would be a welcome addition to a seminary or upper-level undergraduate course on Pauline theology or Romans.

Horizons in Biblical Theology