I know that Romans is often touted as a "template" for Pauline theology (see Sheila McGinn, Celebrating Romans: Template for Pauline Theology), but I am beginning to wonder if Galatians is a better example of Paul's raw and radical theology in many respects. Galatians contains a clear explication of Paul's apocalyptic framework (Gal.1.4), participation in Christ (Gal. 2.17, 20; 3.27-28), gospel and justification (2.15-21), Law-Faith antithesis (Gal. 3.1-9), Pauline hermeneutics (Gal. 3.10-14), redemptive-history (Gal. 3.15-5.1), life in the Spirit (Gal. 5.2-6.10), the church as the 'Israel of God' (Gal. 6.16 - see Beale and Kostenberger on that verse), and he gives us some of our best insights into the complexity of early Christianity (Gal. 1.6-2.14; 6.11-16).
Hi Michael- What in particular do you think makes these better examples than those in Romans?
ReplyDeleteI agree that Galatians is the better template because it's earlier and formed the framework for Paul working through a number of issues that possibly reached their fullest expression in Romans. Isn't that a definition of template?
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