Incongruous Grace as Pattern of Experience

Abstract

AbstractThis article examines the relationship between the theological concept of grace and the effects of grace on human beings in bodies and in time, in critical engagement with John Barclay’s account of Paul’s theology of grace in Paul and the Gift. It begins by showing how one of the book’s most significant contributions is its ‘thick’ description of the effects of incongruous grace in the world in terms of its socially transformative power in the formation of communities. It then argues that Barclay’s account is substantially less successful at giving a compelling account of the more rapid and immediate changes that Paul also associates with encounter with divine grace in the lives of Christians. The article concludes by showing how Barclay’s picture can be expanded and improved by examining how the ‘incongruity’ of grace functions to pattern experience in relatively sudden, emotionally immediate ways rather than just through the long‐term formation of a Christian habitus.