Theology of the Nations

As mentioned in previous posts, I wrote my master’s degree thesis on the messianism of Paul, Pauline Messianism. That is how I got started on the track of researching messianism here! 

It starts with Paul. Paul was and is a complicated, provocative and misunderstood character. His letters and thoughts and words are often ambiguous, if not contradictory! ... which is evident by the fact that until today religious scholars and critical historians continue to argue and research them. 

Here I would like to share in 2-3 posts what I wrote and concluded in regards to Paul, in the context of messianism. I will of course leave out the more analytical textual parts, presenting the main points.

The title Theology of the Nations summarizes it in that Paul developed an approach, for the sake of and driven from his messianic zeal, that proactively manifested elements from the unfulfilled biblical expectation of messianic redemption, specifically, mainly, missionizing Gentile persons to the Messiah of Israel, an implementation of the eschatological prophetic envisioning of Gentiles worshipping the God of Israel together. 

Taubes vs. Scholem

The great scholar Scholem, in his later years, adopted a pupil named Jacob Taubes, more of a philosophical scholar, to work with him to continue the research of Sabbatianism. 

But then these 2 characters got into an ideological and/or historical dispute:

One of Scholem’s big points was that Jewish mysticism was its own phenomenon, and did not take interest in ‘external’ phenomena such as Christian and Islamic mysticism, as if it was not super relevant. 

Scholem asserted that Christian messianism was internalized and spiritual mostly, while Jewish messianism was mostly political and externalized.

Taubes said that was not true, Jewish messianism is and was also spiritual / internalized, and Christian messianism political / externalized...

After they split, years later in 1987 Taubes would give a lecture series, less than one month before dying, which was published (one of the very few things he ‘wrote’) and it was called (now you know why) Political Theology of Paul.

In other words, Taubes took the thought to the next level - assuming the thought of Paul is political, in other words political theology, what is the nature of that political theology? What is its content, beyond distinguishing his theological thought as political?

Taubes’ thoughts on Paul are scattered. It wasn’t even supposed to be a book.

Full of associations, philosophical and historical references, and random points - I felt the need to bring the idea down to earth.

So I went through the relevant ideas of Taubes on Paul, and parallel to this presented contemporary ‘normative’ research on Paul, recent historians specializing in Paul, and then through these and re-read the letters authored by Paul in the 1st century.

I made some conclusions of my own in general in regards to Paul and his letters, and in regards to messianism - in regards to his thought as messianic thought, and as influential or significant in the context of messianism at large. 

Then and Now

From the introduction: 

Paul writes and preaches to messianic believers about messianic events that have happened (past) and nonetheless will happen (future). The messiah has come and redemption is assuredly in effect; but still he is yet to come and execute full resurrection and salvation... 

Upon this paradoxical nature and essential realism in Paul's messianic thought, I apply this insight to two prominent features in Paul's letters, which are his mission to the Gentiles as POLITICAL and then his spiritual or spiritual experiences as MYSTICAL:

The next chapter I chose to call “Political Theology”, referring to the significant and central feature of Paul's mission and association to Gentiles, using Taubes' terminology. I compared varying views of scholars and examined the Pauline letters in order to answer why and how Paul's political theology could have been affected by post-messianic paradoxical thought. 

This resulted in the supposition that Paul is addressing Gentiles and not Jews, motivated ideologically as missionary to Gentiles, while using shrewd and sophisticated tactics of rhetoric in general and particularly with the concept of “nomos” (law).

The “New (or radical) Perspective on Paul” is explained in this chapter and my position expressed, close to John Gager in his book “Reinventing Paul”. 

I proposed to view this radical mission to Gentiles by Paul as a theologically motivated political act stemming from his own anxiety and the paradoxical void of messianic fulfillment.

In other words, in light of the ultimate eschatological vision of all nations worshipping the God of Israel in accordance with prophecies, Paul saw his mission to the Gentiles as an interpretative and practical application of scripture that actually correlates and summons apocalyptic salvation.

Similarly, the chapter, “Mystical Theology” views paranormal experience and mystical worldview as a by-product or a conception developed from Paul's post-messianic paradoxical thought. Albert Schweitzer's “The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle” provides the foundation… 

The conclusion of this survey is that Paul's thought indeed contains notable and varying elements of what can be coined as mysticism.

Additionally, Paul theologizes experiences to partial fulfillment as well as participation in the redemptive power and resurrection of the Messiah. 

This falls in line well with the hypothesis of this paper, as Paul consciously conceptualizes experiences and “mystifies” the religious existence in a paradoxical post-messiah form...

This viewpoint bears potential insight for the initial growth of high christology; messiah is now experienced not physically and presently but through “spirit” and paranormal phenomena understood as the power and touch of messiah himself, instead of the touch of God in spirit-form. 

Scholem's definition of messianism as post-messianic paradoxical thought is relevant not only to Sabbatianism but also to early Christianity, and particularly in the mind of Paul as expressed in the letters. 

The circumstances of Paul's faith and teaching are necessarily paradoxical, as the messiah is awkwardly past, present and future. The classic notion would expect a messiah to come and fulfill all things without the complications Paul must deal with theologically. 

Paul's letters as a study-case for messianism as a historic phenomenon proved to be productive, as this paradoxical messianic thought is expressed as an assertive political mission to the Gentiles, and also as mystical experience of the absent messiah. 

It seems natural that intense religious fervor would motivate proactive undertakings such as these. The messianic idea thus switches from a more passive deterministic apocalypse to a more proactive position, much like the connotations that the term “messianism” tends to arouse today.

This is a conscious effort to implement various elements of the classic eschatological vision tied with the messiah...