Pauline Theology as a Way of Life

Book of the Week

Okay, I haven’t fully read this book yet - still recovering from Covid - but I’m excited about it.

I’ve known Josh since he was 19 years old and he’s a brilliant scholar and this book shows that Pauline theology is not about theological ideas but how to live life in Christ.

Here’s a quote that summarizes so much of the book:

I will argue that Paul has a robust understanding of how human flourishing depends upon the goal of human existence as sharing in the life of God. Paul’s theological exhortations and claims are derived from his beliefs that the person of Christ both definitively reveals the shape of a good life and enables others to live it. While he does not use the language of eudomaimonia, Paul’s Letters bear the hallmarks of those ancient eudaimonistic moral philosophers who posited a singular supreme good for humanity's life orientation. Like these ancient philosophers, Paul derives his theological convictions, ontological and cosmological statements, ethical exhortations, and pastoral counsel to his churches from and in his service to understanding of the summum bonum - namely, sharing in the very life of God through relation to Christ. Paul’s theological discourse serves this way of life and has direct consequences for humanity with respect to such existential matters as divine transcendence, death and finitude, friendship and social belonging, freedom and moral agency, the pursuit of Christian virtues, and facing suffering and death. (1-2)