The Religion of Paul the Apostle

Abstract

The Religion of by John Ashton. New Haven/London: Yale University Press, 2000. Pp. x + 261. $28.50 The Oxford scholar John Ashton is well known for his work on Fourth Gospel. With this book, Ashton turns his attention to Paul. Ashton attempts to understand apostle's religious life by comparing Paul's experiences with shamanism. In so doing, Ashton hopes to shed light not only on Paul's religion but also on genesis and early growth of Christian religion as a whole. Following an initial chapter that defends his comparative approach, Ashton's chapters examine Paul Enigma, Paul Convert, Paul Mystic, Paul Apostle, Paul Prophet, and Paul Possessed. Ashton also includes excursuses on Jesus as a shaman, merkabah mysticism, Albert Mysticism of and historicity of Acts. Together chapters and excursuses make argument that (1) we need an approach to that does justice to distinctively mystical and religious character of his career; (2) a comparison with shamanism provides such a method; and (3) application of this method reveals that Paul's effectiveness and Christianity's early growth were largely due to demonstrations of spiritual power. Ashton is uneasy with a tendency among NT scholars to overlook specifically religious dimension of Paul's writings and career. Ashton positions himself line with Adolf Deissmann's claim that scholars of his day had transferred from his primary sphere of vital religion to secondary sphere of theology. Ashton builds upon Hermann Gunkel's theory that Paul's own life must provide key to his teaching on spiritual life. The author laments that even when scholars attempt to describe Paul's religion, such as Albert Mysticism of Apostle and E. P. Sanders's and Palestinian Judaism, they still tend to focus on his theology and on as a theologian. In case of Schweitzer and Sanders, Ashton relies somewhat heavily upon their interpretations of Paul's thought, but he faults these scholars for concentrating their arguments too exclusively on what believed instead of what he experienced. In agreement with Mysticism of to which Ashton's title alludes, Ashton wants to steer away from theological categories of Reformation. But Ashton complains that Schweitzer's mysticism is curiously cerebral and decries how Schweitzer starts with Paul's conceptual framework instead of his life. Ashton concurs with Schweitzer and Sanders that being in Christ is a more important expression Paul's thought than justification by faith. However, whereas Schweitzer characterized center of Paulinism as the mystical doctrine of redemption through being-in-- Christ, Ashton says center is the mystical sense of glorification,through transformation Christ. The change from doctrine to sense is essential for Ashton. Ashton also criticizes Sanders's comparison of Paul's pattern of religion with that of Palestinian Judaism, suggesting that Sanders confusion even further than Schweitzer. Ashton complains that Paul's pattern of religion turns out to be, Sanders's work, Paul's theology of salvation instead of his religious experiences. Sanders contends that we must be content with concentrating on how religion appears Jewish and Pauline thought, but this does not satisfy Ashton. We may note that Ashton's approach to religious dimension is a noteworthy contrast to Troels Engberg-Pederson's recent book, and Stoics (Louisville: John Knox, 2000). Engberg-Pederson acknowledges both religious and theological aspects of texts but consciously chooses theological route because he declares it to be only one available. By contrast, Ashton argues that religious and experiential domain is one that merits attention and takes us to essence of apostle's work. …