The Origin of Paul's ReligionMachen, J. Gresham (John Gresham)
Religion
The Origin of Paul's Religion
Machen, J. Gresham (John Gresham)
Bible. Epistles of Paul -- Theology; Paul, the Apostle, Saint
Further difficulties, moreover, beset Bousset's theory. The term
"Lord" as applied to Jesus, and the religious attitude toward Jesus
expressed by the term, arose, according to Bousset, in the meetings
of such communities as the one at Antioch, and under the influence
of pagan conceptions. But of course Bousset's explanation of the
origin of Paulinism has not yet been completely set forth. Paulinism
is something far more than an ecstatic worship of a cult-god; the
personal relation to Christ dominates every department of the
apostle's life.
Bousset recognizes this fact. The religion of Paul, he admits, is
something far more than the religion which was expressed in the
meetings of the Antioch Church. But he supposes that the other
elements of Paul's religion, far-reaching as they are, had at least
their starting-point in the cult. Here is to be found one of the
least plausible elements in the whole construction. Bousset has
underestimated the individualistic character of Paul's religion. At
least he has not succeeded in showing that the Pauline life "in
Christ" or "in the Lord" was produced by development from ecstatic
experiences in the meetings of the Antioch Church.
But if the individualistic religion of Paul was developed from the
"cult," how was it developed? How shall the introduction of the new
elements be explained? Bousset has attacked this problem with great
earnestness. And he tries to show that the religion of Paul as it
appears in the Epistles was developed from the cult religion of
Antioch by the identification of "the Lord" with "the Spirit," and
by the generalizing and ethicizing of the conception of the Spirit's
activity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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