PAUL FOR THE WORLD

A New Way To Look at Paul and His Letters

Happy April! We are now about 5 weeks out from the release of my new book PAUL FOR THE WORLD, with Brazos Press.

A Grounded Vision for Finding Meaning in This Life—Not Just the Next

I have always known Paul to be the first and greatest Christian theologian. Much of what we read in our classic systematic theologies are highly influenced by Paul, and for good reason. But I realized something crucial only later in my Christian life—I have been reading Paul all wrong; I have been reading him wrong because most theologians have been reading him wrong.

Okay, that’s a big statement, bordering on click-bait. But I am not saying that theologians are misunderstanding what Paul wrote. It’s more that they often focus narrowly on a few things in Paul’s writings and virtually ignore many important other things. That has led to a lopsided view of Paul, which has led to a lopsided theology.

Let me explain with a story: I have taught some type of Pauline theology class almost every year for over a decade. I often do an open topic research paper. Typically, students choose the heavy theological subjects like pneumatology, eschatology, ecclesiology, soteriology, Christology, etc. But in the last five years, there has been a shift. A few years ago, students started coming to me saying, “I want to look at Paul and poverty,” “Paul and social justice,” “Paul and mental health,” “Paul and poetry.” I was thrilled, because I find these topics fascinating and obviously relevant for the life of the church and everyday living as a Christian. But—there are not great all-in-one resources. I was able to recommend a monograph here, a journal article there, but what I think was needed was a more robust, well-rounded Pauline theology that focuses not on how Paul tried to save souls for heaven (that wasn’t his focus), but rather on how he saw the heavenly gospel transforming our lives in the here and now.

Paul’s gospel wasn’t about helping us get away from this world. Paul’s ministry and his gospel of Jesus Christ are for this world.

So, here is where theologians often go wrong. They read through Paul’s letters, scanning past the so-called “worldly stuff”—church squabbles, money matters, health issues, stress and anxiety, broken relationships—looking for “theological nuggets.” That is, what we often talk about as “atonement” texts. Paul cared about eternal salvation, he clearly wrote about it. His whole life and ministry were oriented towards the gospel of Jesus Christ. However, while Paul teaches and utilizes these massive theological truths in his letters, they are usually put in service of transforming our life in this world, in the here and now. Put another way, Paul’s gospel was not trying to get us to think about different things other than this world, but rather to think about this world differently, with the mind of Christ.

I think of my book as an inverted Pauline theology. Instead of asking Paul, how can I get to heaven?, it helps to read Paul asking, how do we live as gospel kingdom citizens right here and right now? How does Christ model and the Spirit empower our daily Christian lives? How does the gospel make sacred all that we do in the secular world?

There are so many things going on right now in the world that push us towards escapist theology in one form or another—escaping into our churches, or daydreaming about heaven, or doomscrolling the news or social media—and it can be easy to lose any sense of finding meaning in our daily lives on earth. But Paul’s life and letters testify to deep meaning and impact in all that we do in our work, family, neighborhood, and church, if our lives are suffused with the presence of Christ. We Christians have the resources to help our neighbors find deeper meaning in their day-in-day-out lives right now, rather than merely offering them the hope of eternal life. Eternal life is great, don’t get me wrong! But Jesus offers so much more, even now, even in the worst of times.

So, that is what my book is about. If you want to see Paul in a new way—more relevant, more compassionate, more gritty, more real, more social, more creative—then this book is for you! I will be sharing more in the weeks to come, so stay tuned.