Monday, May 07, 2007

New Blogs 18

I am glad to draw attention to the fact that Michael Gorman of St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore has his own blog Michael Gorman (Biblical Theologian).

Gorman is the author of several books including Apostle of the Crucified Lord which includes excellent sections on rhetoric, Paul's spirituality, and the theopolitical nature of Paul's gospel. It is a cross between a Pauline Theology and an introduction to each of Paul's letters. Then there is his book Cruciformity: Paul's Narrative Spirituality of the Cross. A lesser known book of his that I found last year at the Wipf & Stock stand of ETS/SBL is Abortion and the Early Church: Christian, Jewish and Pagan Attitudes in the Greco-Roman World.
Whereas Gorman encourages us to see Paul's spirituality as cruciformed (conformed to the pattern of the cross) I in turn argue, in addition not in opposition, that Paul's spirituality is also anastasized or quickened by the power of Christ's resurrection.

2 comments:

Michael Pahl said...

Hey, thanks for the mention of Gorman's blog. And thanks both for the commendation of his idea of "cruciformity" and your additional focus on the resurrection. I would also argue the same way, that Paul's theology, spirituality, and praxis are all governed by the crucified-and-resurrected-Jesus. But "anastasized"? Sounds like "anaesthetized" to me... ;-)

Michael J. Gorman said...

Mike--
Thanks for the mention of my site.
Of course I have emphasized the cross and the cruciform character of both God and life in Christ, but always in the context of the crucified Christ as the resurrected Christ (and vice versa)and as the power for cruciform existence. I have said this in all my books and articles (both published and forthcoming), whether technical or not. (Recently I've even talked about theosis, which is probably very close to what you mean by anastasized.) But I say even more about the resurrection in a forthcoming book (hopefully in 2008), tentatively called Inhabiting the Cruciform God: Kenosis and Theosis According to Paul.