The Faith of St. Paul

Transformative Gift of Divine Power

Roy A. Harrisville

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781532657856
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Criticism & Interpretation

For generations, scholars who study the letters of St. Paul have argued about "being-in-Christ" and "justification by faith" as though they were competing theologies. They have argued about faith as divine gift or human work, and more recently the faith of Jesus Christ has been called into question. Harrisville proposes a provocative and simple solution to these issues by examining scholarly assumptions and presenting the faith of St. Paul as a dynamic and life-changing power. Participation in Christ and righteousness by faith are actually complimentary expressions for the same concept. The apostle's faith was not self-engendered but a gift that transformed him into a believer. Taking a more organic approach to understanding the faith of St. Paul, this book provides a path toward reconciling entrenched positions and providing a fresh perspective by presenting the apostle's concept of faith as a transformative gift of divine power.

1

Justification by Faith and Participation in Christ

The difficulty of describing the faith of St. Paul and explaining the connection between the believer and the Believed has occupied Christian scholars for generations. The dilemma manifested itself in different forms over the centuries, but today it finds expression in the debate between those who embrace the Reformation formula of “justification by faith” on the one hand, and on the other hand, those who espouse the formula: “participation in Christ.” The two camps, characterized as the Lutheran/Reformed Perspective and the New Perspective on Paul, are often talking past each other, sometimes even ignoring each other. They seem to be crystallizing into entrenched positions that cause a serious division in the church and theological scholarship. Each side wants to triumph over the other by producing ever more sophisticated and arcane arguments that they hope will crush the opposition. This state of affairs has arisen over a number of years and warrants investigation.

E. P. Sanders has been responsible in large measure for the direction of Pauline studies in recent years beginning with his influential book, Paul and Palestinian Judaism.1 This book reflects the point of view of faith as a human work, which we encountered in the introduction. Sanders writes that although St. Paul’s message was “not about man and does not describe him, it is intended to elicit ‘faith,’ and faith can only be individual.”2 He considers faith as decision, acceptance, and response to the gospel.3 “‘Faith’ alone, in a way, is a prerequisite, since it signifies conversion and being Christian: the Spirit is received by believing the gospel message.”4 Clearly, Sanders considers faith a human work if it is the prerequisite to receiving the Spirit. If faith is elicited, or drawn out, it must have had a prior existence within the individual and needed to be extracted from the person. Does Sanders regard faith as a capacity innate within the person that requires the right catalyst to bring it forth?

Sanders, moreover, states that the doctrine of “righteousness by faith” receives little development from St. Paul and that this teaching does not lead to ethics, neither does it help explain the importance of the sacraments, nor the gift of the Spirit, and “it does not account for the participatory soteriology which we have already discussed.”5 He derives such views from Albert Schweitzer, whose work is discussed below.

In Paul, the Law, and the Jewish People Sanders portrays Pauline faith as an entrance requirement.6 The opposition between faith and law in Paul’s letters has more to do “with the central membership requirement, rather than with a whole way of life.”7

Moreover, according to Sanders, there is actually no real opposition between faith and works. In the letter to the Galatians,

Neither of the opposing factions saw the requirements of “doing” to be a denial of faith. When Paul makes requirements of his converts, he does not think that he has denied faith, and there is no reason to think that Jewish Christians who specified different requirements denied faith. The supposed conflict between “doing” as such and “faith” as such is simply not present in Galatians.8

Further, “when faith is seen as not being the opposite of “good works” in and of themselves, there will be less pressure to think that Paul accused Judaism of good works—of legalism and reliance on self-achievement.”9 Dr. Sanders regards faith as an action that even Apostles must “do”: “Even Peter and Paul, who had lived as righteous Jews, had to do something else to be members of the people of God; they had to have faith in Christ (Gal. 2:15f.).”

Sanders’s interpretation of Pauline faith is that of an entrance requirement that one must perform. Faith is a “doing” for Sanders that is not essentially opposed to works, and that is why he does not see much difference between Paul’s Christianity and his former life in Judaism. The only difference he finds between the two religions is that one of them lacks Christ.10 Thus, for Sanders, Christianity is not essentially different from Judaism, except for the novelty of Jesus.

If that is so, then why does the Apostle spend so much time and energy and risk the good will, especially of the Galatians, to argue so strenuously for his faith in the way he does? Why did he endure such hardships and privations if only for a novel addition to his old life? That Christ is the essential difference between Christianity and all other religions is obvious, but what is not so obvious is what the difference actually means in the life of the believer. Christ is not a mere addition onto one’s already adequate devotion. He is not a spice to be added to the dish. Rather, he is the essential difference that makes a person into a new creature altogether.11

From Sanders’s understanding of faith springs the assertion that “justification by faith” must not be the central doctrine of Paul’s theology, but rather the central teaching of the Apostle is a participation in Christ. This view is reflected in a recent interview that Richard B. Hays had with E. P. Sanders, which was subsequently published.12 Hays introduces the interview by remarking

One of the principal contributions of E. P. Sanders’s Paul and Palestinian Judaism was its rigorous argument that “the main theme of Paul’s theology is found in his participationist language rather than in the theme of righteousness by faith.” That is to say, Paul’s soteriology focuses on themes of union with Christ rather than on juridical conceptions of atonement.” In contending for this position, Sanders was, of c...