Paul and the Person: Reframing Paul's Anthropology
Digital Verbum Edition
Save 25% off during the Memorial Day Sale!$26.24
Overview
In this book Susan Grove Eastman presents a fresh and innovative exploration of Paul's participatory theology in conversation with both ancient and contemporary conceptions of the self. Juxtaposing Paul, ancient philosophers, and modern theorists of the person, Eastman opens up a conversation that illuminates Paul's thought in new ways and brings his voice into current debates about personhood.
Eastman devotes close attention to the Pauline letters within their first-century context, particularly the Greco-Roman fascination with questions of performance and identity. At the same time, she draws out connections to recent trends in psychology and neurobiology in order to situate Paul's insights in deep dialogue with contemporary understandings of human identity.
Key Features
- Explores different approaches to anthrophology and Paul's thought
- Takes seriously contemporary understandings of neurobiology and cognitive science
- Places contemporary science in dialogue with ancient views of identity and humanity
Contents
- Introduction: The Puzzle of Pauline Anthropology
- Part One: A Three-Way Conversation
- The Way to Freedom: Epictetus on the Person
- “Who Are You?”: Contemporary Perspectives on the Person
- Embodied and Embedded: The Corporeal Reality of Pauline Participation
- Part Two: Participation and the Self
- Relationality Gone Bad: The Evacuation of the Self in Romans 7
- Divine Participation: The New Christological Agent in Philippians 2
- The Saving Relation: Union with Christ in Galatians 2
- Conclusion: Pushing the Reset Button on Paul’s Anthropology
Top Highlights
“Taken together, they suggest a pattern of talking about persons in which the self is never on its own but always socially and cosmically constructed in relationship to external realities that operate internally as well.” (Page 8)
“The claim that for Paul the self is always a self-in-relation-to-others raises further questions: what kind of agency is implied and exercised by a self that is not solely self-determining?” (Page 9)
“Rather, he displays a functional understanding of human beings as relationally constituted agents who are both embodied and embedded in their world. Exploring that understanding is basic to the purpose of this book.” (Page 2)
“These two actors could not be more opposed to one another. Yet the structure of these opposing constructions of the self is remarkably similar. In both cases the self is a self-in-relation-to-another, suggesting that it is not only ‘in Christ,’ but also in the realm of sin and death, that the person is shaped in relationship to a separate entity that is both external and indwelling.” (Page 7)
“If the self is structured in other-relationship, then its liberation and health require a radically new relational matrix.39 Paul finds that new relationship in Christ’s mimetic assimilation to the situation of Adamic humanity to the point of crucifixion, and his subsequent victory over condemnation and death.” (Page 125)
Praise for the Print Edition
This book does give us rich new insight into Paul and well-conceived language with which to communicate his theology effectively today. That is a precious gift indeed.
—John Barclay, Lightfoot Professor of Divinity Durham University
About Susan Grove Eastman
Susan Grove Eastman is associate research professor of New Testament at Duke Divinity School and the author of Recovering Paul's Mother Tongue: Language and Theology in Galatians.
Sample Pages from the Print Edition
Reviews
3 ratings
Eric moerdyk
11/18/2022
This is a very thought provoking and illuminating read. It really helps confront our blindspots as Western thinkers still affected by Descartes infamous dictum 'I think therefore I am.' Eastman argues persuasively that rather than rationality as the precondition for relationally, the reverse is true. Participation in Christ and the image of God reveal our sense of self is not self defined, but defined by relationship. She compares recent developments in philosophy, neuroscience, and research on the brain with Paul's contemporaries the Stoics to show the differences and similarities. Eastman particularly focuses on Romans 7, Philippians 2, and Galatians 2 to make her points theologically in the second half of the book. My only caveat is I would like to see her in a subsequent book work out the potential implications of this line of thought. This reveals the roots of our western crusade about individual rights being purely self defined rather than defined in relationship. I also wondered if there is an incipient universalism in some of her phrasing, but I could be wrong about that.Aaron Hayworth
4/20/2020
Adrian Sobers
7/7/2019
Save 25% off during the Memorial Day Sale!