Unity and Diversity in Christ: Interpreting Paul in Context - Collected Essays

A collection of essays re-examining the writings and legacy of St Paul, emphasising the continuity between his epistles and his Jewish roots.

The legacy of Pauline scholarship, from ancient to modern, is characterised by a surfeit of unsettled, conflicting conclusions that often fail to interpret Paul in relation to his Jewish roots. William S. Campbell takes a stand against this paradigm, emphasising continuity between Judaism and the Christ-movement in Paul's letters. Campbell focusses on important themes, such as diversity, identity and reconciliation, as the basic components of transformation in Christ. The stance from which Paul theologises is one that recognises and underpins social and cultural diversity and includes the correlating demand that because difference is integral to the Christ-movement, the enmity associated with difference cannot be tolerated. Thus, reconciliation emerges as a fundamental value in the Christ-movement. Reconciliation, in this sense, respects and does not negate the particularities of the identity of Jews and those from the nations. In this paradigm, transformation implies the re-evaluation of all things in Christ, whether of Jewish or gentile origin.

William S. Campbell is Reader in Biblical Studies at the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David.