Not counting Jesus himself, the Apostle Paul was probably the single most influential thinker in Christianity.<\/p>\n
Just to give an example, centuries of philosophers have grappled with Paul\u2019s formulation of human weakness and the conflict of duty and inclination: \u00bbThe things that I like I don\u2019t do, but the things that I hate \u2013 those I do\u00ab.<\/p>\n
In one of the most memorable passages in the New Testament, he counts faith, hope and love to the Christian virtues, \u2018these three, but the greatest of these is love.\u2019<\/p>\n
Yet the more you get to know him, the more enigmatic he and his view of the world becomes. Indebted to contemporary Greek philosophical schools like the Stoics, Paul had his own conception of God, the world, and ethics: A conception that is at odds with later Christian tradition and a modern scientific worldview.<\/p>\n
Troels Engberg-Pedersen, a classicist and theologian at the University of Copenhagen, has spent the last ten years of his life working out all the things that Paul presupposes \u2013his cosmology.<\/p>\n
\u00bbTake for example his understanding of \u2018spirit\u2019 which is a bad translation of the Greek word \u2018pneuma\u2019. We normally take the spirit to mean something immaterial, something floating around in the ether,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n
But this ethereal conception of the spirit is a result of a later influence of the philosophical school of Platonism around 200 AD, he explains.<\/p>\n
\u00bbFor Paul, \u2018pneuma\u2019 was a material entity, a sort of energy. Understanding the spirit in material terms, helps us to see that he is talking about the human body,\u201d Troels Engberg-Pedersen explains.<\/p>\n
Likewise, later Christian tradition will conceive of Paul\u2019s phrase to \u2018be in Christ\u2019 as a kind of metaphor.<\/p>\n
\u00bbBut my suggestion is that we should read him literally. When he says that Christians are \u2018in Christ\u2019, he conceived of the risen Christ as actually entering the bodies of those who belonged to Christ,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n
Getting to grips with what Paul means when he uses concepts like \u2018pneuma\u2019 and \u2018being in Christ\u2019, we not only understand Paul better, but understand the development of Christianity and even the Stoics better, he adds.
\nThis is some strange stuff.<\/p>\n
And Troels Engberg-Pedersen admits that he does not personally go along with it. After all, the worldview of the Apostle Paul is so radically different from a modern understanding of the world, that it is likely we are unable to believe in it.<\/p>\n
\u00bbI don\u2019t believe for a minute his understanding of the material spirit. But I am fascinated by his attempt to bring together his theology, cosmology and his articulation of a preferred way of living,\u00ab he explains.<\/p>\n
As in all theology, human and social sciences, the question why we should be interested, is almost as important as the thought itself. For Troels Engberg-Pedersen it is the strangeness, the otherness of Paul that makes him relevant.<\/p>\n
\u00bbIt is extremely important to move away from our own culture, and to attempt to achieve what the anthropologists call the emic, the inside understanding. In history we can go back and find someone who at the same time has had an influence upon our lives and thought, but who at the same time, like Paul, is very strange\u00ab.<\/p>\n
So should we consider him an ancient philosopher? Should he be on the philosophical canon with the likes of Plato or Aristotle?<\/em><\/p>\n \u00bbWe can try to read Paul as a philosopher, yes. He argues as a philosopher, had a philosophical mind, and attempts to relate concepts to one another. But we also should remember that he saw himself as a missionary, he wanted to proclaim the Christ event, and to make Christians accept the return of Christ. Within that overall conception, he uses philosophical reasoning\u00ab. From our modern perspective, Saint Paul had some strange ideas<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":24064,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","expression-news_article"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"