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1 Paul and death
A question of psychological coping
Introduction
The present investigation looks into the attitudes toward death in Paul’s authentic letters and puts them in relation to modern theories of psychological coping. Drawing on psychologically oriented hermeneutic theory, and theories about psychological coping in particular, I will make an attempt to read each letter as relating to the historical situation and as emanating from a specific person’s subjective appraisal. Paul’s letters frequently refer to persecution and violent death, and to aid in psychological coping is often integral to their purposes, which makes the perspective of psychological coping akin to the genre of these letters. In the course of a tentatively assumed chronological order of 1 Thessalonians, Galatians, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Romans, Philippians, and Philemon, I will show how Paul moves from the perception of Jesus dying for the faithful to the understanding of himself dying with Jesus. His coping strategies concerning death are gradually transformed from conservative and deferring coping styles, to a more self-directing coping style, to collaborative and transformative coping styles, and finally to a new sense of collaborative and deferring coping style in prison. The last case of deferring coping carries the traits of generosity and flexibility even in the face of death, which is in contrast to his previous letters.
Through his correspondence, we can also see Paul’s attitude toward death transformed from denial to reaction, to processing, to acceptance, and his strategies also shift in accordance with these understandings. Denial is accompanied by diversion, threat by aggression, processing by rumination, and acceptance by joy. I would say that the study shows the hermeneutic benefits of reading Paul’s letters as the rhetorically framed expressions of a person in a particular historical situation. The letters open small windows through which we can glimpse the coping process of a person of antiquity. In adopting the method of psychological exegesis, the study shows that the variety of attitudes toward death in Paul’s letters makes sense from the perspective of psychological coping. The psychological aspect of these letters seems to be an underexamined richness that can extend into areas of contemporary individual and group identity, and from there to public policy and ethics.
Trying to get a coherent grip on Paul’s attitudes toward death without a process perspective can be a puzzling experience. In Jaime Clark-Soles’s words, “If death is the enemy, we wonder how he can say, ‘Dying is gain’ (Philippians 1:21). And what exactly is going on in 2 Corinthians 5?”1 where Paul depicts the present existence as that of being in a tent, longing for a future habitation in a more solid heavenly building. The present study will explore the variety of Paul’s attitudes toward death from the vantage point of psychological coping, and we will focus on Paul as a person who was deeply involved with the situations that he encountered. He probably struggled sometimes to come to terms with different aspects of reality, and his psychological coping was aided by his theological thinking. Rather than viewing him primarily as a philosopher or systematic theologian, his letters are interpreted with the underlying assumption that Paul was only human. Then the shifting attitudes of the letters become less surprising. When the letters are seen as small windows into history, as the expressions of a person who encountered different situations with specific goals in mind, the existence of coherent view in terms of conformity does not have to be assumed in regard to Paul’s attitude toward death. The hypothesis of the present investigation is that there may be traces of a coping process – or coping processes – that become visible in Paul’s discourses about death.
Therefore, each of Paul’s so-called uncontested letters will be examined, that is, the material consists in 1 Thessalonians, Galatians, 1–2 Corinthians, Romans, Philippians, and Philemon – these letters are generally deemed to be written or dictated by this same author in something like the form we have them in. The passages where Paul discusses the actual deaths – or risk of death – of contemporary persons offer a natural starting point. These passages, however, will be seen both as parts of larger rhetorical units, namely the letter, and as embedded in a rhetorical situation, that is, Paul’s cultural, political, and personal situation, as well as his idea of the situation of the addressees. Psychological coping is inherently contextual, and therefore the letters will be analyzed as relating to specific situations and circumstances. Paul’s letters are themselves primary evidence not only of how he appraised the situations he encountered, but also of how he dealt with these situations – although in a rhetorically framed fashion – the letters themselves sometimes a part of his coping strategies. In this context, Jesus’ death will be counted as one of the deaths of contemporary persons, even though this is a death with extraordinary significance to Paul and other Christ-believers, and yes, to the whole world in Paul’s perspective. Paul’s attitudes toward his own impending death are sometimes a vital subject matter in his later letters. The metaphorical use of death as an expression of transition and thorough change will also be discussed in relation to the concepts of psychological coping.
The concept of psychological coping has the capacity to take into account the person, the situation, and the encounter between the two. This means that the theory itself does not impose certain values on the material, as assumed in the person or the situation, nor that a particular cultural or political vantage point is required to make the model intelligible. As will be further elaborated below, the theory of psychological coping attributes great significance to the subjective appraisals of the person. Unless someone appraises the situation as stressful,2 no coping strategies will be developed. In other words, a person or a group can be exposed to lethal danger, but unless someone acknowledge it as such, no coping processes will begin. Furthermore, persons may have different experiences, and the resources and burdens for coping vary from person to person.3 The fact that situations vary leads us to acknowledge that not all deaths are the same. Some deaths are benevolent, while others are horrific. There is, for example, a world of difference between the death of a person who dies of old age while surrounded by her loved ones and the premature death by execution of a convict in a mocking crowd. In Paul’s letters, we find the rhetorically framed expressions of his appraisals of the situations that he encountered, of which some of them involve the death, or risk of death, of his contemporaries, and himself.
Coping strategies in a broader sense are integral to all of Paul’s letters and in fact often constitute their reason for existence. He has specific goals and concerns, and he deems that the situation entails certain risks to these values, practices, or persons about whom he cares. The letters are therefore often designed to enhance and protect significant values that are at stake. The issue of Paul’s attitudes toward the deaths of his contemporaries can be broken down into a number of questions: How is this death appraised in the letters? Is death, for example, evaluated by Paul as a threat, challenge, loss, or even a gain and a beneficial prospect in the actualized passage? How does the shameful death of Jesus – and Paul’s belief in his resurrection – influence the understanding of death evident in Paul’s letters? Do they contribute to his attempts to cope with whatever current situation is depicted by him in the letters? Does his fellowship with other Christ-believers contribute? What strategies does Paul suggest to his addressees, and what strategies does he adopt by means of the letters, or as indicated by the letters, to deal with this death? And finally, can we discern any progression in Paul’s thinking about death if the appraisals that occur in the letters are tentatively structured in chronological order and related to each other as part of a process?
The theory of psychological coping is concerned with appraisals of specific situations, with coping strategies that are developed in relation to these situations, and with resources and burdens of coping in relation to personal goals.4 Paul’s letters are primary evidence for how he dealt with this important issue, and the death of contemporary persons provides a good entry to the subject of psychological coping in Paul. However, the first loss that appears to have come out of his choice to affiliate himself with the group of Christ-believers seems to be a loss of social position and honor within his group. It seems that he came to be in an unclear position in his new in-group, and with a severe loss of personal safety attached to it eventually.
Method: Psychological exegesis
In 1999 Wayne G. Rollins provided the field with a helpful overview of psychological biblical criticism through his survey of studies done up to that time, his attempt to define the field, and his suggestions of pathways for further investigation. As Rollins puts it, the fundamental premise of the field is:
From a biblical-critical perspective, the Bible is to be seen as part and product, not only of a historical, literary, ...
