Abstract

Dibelius, in his commentary on the Pastoral Epistles, suggested that they represented a way-of-being in the world resulting from the delay of the parousia. As such they advocate a form of spirituality which can best be described as “good Christian citizenship”. This paper, drawing on both Taylor’s understanding of the “social imaginary” and Waaijman’s understanding of spirituality, examines Dibelius’ contention by revisiting the concept of eusebeia (godliness/piety), which is prevalent in the Pastorals, in the light of the lived experience of pagans, Jews and Christians in first-century Ephesus.

Highlights

  • The Pastoral Epistles are not the biblical texts one would instinctively turn to for a discussion on spirituality

  • The Pastorals have been described as a fading of the Pauline vision of charismatic community in which “the experience of the Christ-Spirit has lost its vitality” (Dunn 1975:349), or as advocating a form of Christianity which has to conform itself to wider society in the light of the delay of the parousia (Dibelius & Conzelmann 1972)

  • It remains to be seen whether the elements of the Pastorals highlighted by commentators such as Dunn and Dibelius should be interpreted in the way they do or whether, as indicative of Taylor’s “middle ground”, these elements form an essential part of a vibrant post-Pauline spirituality

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Summary

Introduction

The Pastoral Epistles are not the biblical texts one would instinctively turn to for a discussion on spirituality. Taylor’s understanding of spirituality will be used to investigate as far as possible the lived experience of pagans, Jews and Christians in Ephesus and Crete in the first century CE in order to elucidate more clearly the spirituality advocated in the Pastorals In this investigation I shall aim to tease out different notions of “the good life” in the fundamentally “enchanted world” of the first century.. This paper takes issue with the view famously put forward by Dibelius that the Pastorals’ notion of “the good life” can more or less be equated with that of the wider Graeco-Roman society To contest this position I will examine the concept of eusebeia (piety/godliness) in pagan and Jewish literature and compare this with its use in the Pastorals

Dibelius’ concept of “the ideal of good Christian citizenship”
The “social imaginary”
Ephesus in the first century CE5
Lived experience in Ephesus
Pagans
Christians
CONCLUSION

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