Book Review… Tracing the path of a controversial apostle

May 08, 2016 Book Review…, Features / Columnists

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Book: St Paul: The apostle we love to hate
Author: Karen Armstrong
Reviewer: Dr Glenville Ashby

Would Jesus’ apostles have refused to celebrate the Lord’s Supper with today’s Christians? Would his apostles have shunned Christianity as we know it? The likely answers to these loaded questions are explored in Karen Armstrong’s

seminal exposition, “St. Paul: The Apostle we love to hate.”
Armstrong, a British author and renowned commentator on comparative religion, pieces together a string of data from several authoritative sources, including John Dominic Crossan, Richard Horseley, Neil Asher Siberman, and Martin Hengel.
Throughout, Armstrong remains cautious, speculative and deliberate, hesitant to present a definitive picture of first century political dynamics; and as a Pauline apologist, she unabashedly exonerates the controversial figure from attacks that range from misogyny, doctrinal subversion, narcissism and megalomania. She offers exculpatory evidence by peering through the lens of Paul and deconstructing his existential experiences.
She is fastidious as she traces his steps and psychoanalyses his rapturous ecstasy on the road to Damascus. She reminds us that dismissive views of Paul are inaccurate, and that of Paul’s letters, “only seven are judged by scholars to be authentic”; that “Colossians, Ephesians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus, known as the Deutero-Pauline letters, were written in his name after his death, some as late as the second century; and that “these posthumous epistles attempted to make his radical teachings more acceptable to the Greco-Roman world. It was these later writers who insisted that women be subservient to their husbands, and that slaves must obey their masters.”
We are sold, and begin to empathize with this apostle. Although short on facts, Armstrong is masterful at rhetoric and we stand with Paul as a theological pitch battle is waged among the apostles. When the dust clears, James, Cephas, and Peter, the vanguard of the Jesus movement in Judea appear loathsome, aloof and cold. They stridently uphold the Law, promoting Kaddosh or the uniqueness of Judaic Thought. They hesitantly accommodate Gentiles. For James and company, circumcision and dietary prescriptions cannot be circumvented.
We get a palpable feeling that they were obsessed with all things Jewish. It is this exclusivity peddled by the original apostles that is chillingly disturbing and raises a number of questions. We are moved to ask if Jesus’ ministry was all that inclusive. Didn’t Jesus say, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel,” (Matthew 15:24). We later learn that his message was meant for all – Jews and Gentiles. Still, the struggles and inconsistencies among the apostles are very telling.
Armstrong leaves us pondering, ready to decry the self-professed exceptionalism of the Judea group headed by James, a fastidious, overbearingly cautious and suspicious figure when dealing with non-Jews. In fact, as word spread of Paul’s work among Gentiles in Antioch, the apostles in Judea are irate. Is Paul marginalizing or even dismissing the Law? Is he redefining Jesus’ teachings?
Here, Armstrong presents a watershed meeting between the Judea group and Paul – a kind of summit aimed at brokering a deal by which the two parties could live. She recalls St Paul’s words, “They saw that I had been entrusted to take the gospels to the gentiles as surely as Peter had been entrusted to take it to the Jews; for the same God who was at work with Peter’s mission to the Jews was also at work in mine to the gentiles,” and “nothing further was demanded in the way of circumcision or ritual observance.” But, Armstrong recalls that the Judea group reneges on the agreement, headstrong that gentiles should submit to all the requirements of Judaic tradition that demanded ritual purity.
“The conflict,” Armstrong notes, “came to a head in Antioch,” when Jews withdrew from the table of fellowship with believing Gentiles for fear of disapproval as visitors from James arrived. “Paul,” we learn “was the only Jewish member of the Antioch community to remain sitting with his gentile brothers and sisters. Even Barnabas, he would bitterly recall later, ‘played like the rest.’”
Armstrong presents an endearing personage in Paul. His notoriety and unwavering persecution of the apostles give way to his veritable Christian message. Heartened, we immediately turn a blind eye to his past excesses. His conversion is authentic. The power of Paul’s otherworldly experience more than qualifies him to lead, to counsel and proselytize. He is transformed in word and deed. His layers of arrogance, zealotry and temporal power are stripped away and here he stands in simplicity, even innocence, poised in his new mission as visionary, prophet and minister. Indeed there is an underlying, persistent and provocative question throughout this work: Would Jesus and his apostles, save Paul, have recognized and accepted today’s Christianity?
Armstrong work offers more than a compelling narrative on the Jesus movement. It is a bold foray into history, geopolitics, imperialism and the socio-political dynamics of occupied territories. We get a panoramic look at an apostle’s evangelical journey in Nabatea (in Arabia), Antioch (Syria), and Galatia (Macedonia). And Paul’s thrust for class and gender equality through kenosis (emptying of oneself to receive the Holy Spirit is ever present. There is no Jew or Gentile, only a human family in Christ. Yes, Paul is troubled and even unhinged at times. Flawed and imperfect he is. But never does he swerve from his divine mission. Such is his passion for justice. In the end he emerges as the only “Christian” among the apostles.

St Paul: The Apostle we love to hate by Karen Armstrong
Publisher: Amazon Publishing, 2015
ISBN: 10: 14477828338
Available at Amazon
Ratings: Highly recommended

Feedback: [email protected] or follow him on Twitter@glenvilleashby
Dr Glenville Ashby is the author of Anam Cara: Your Soul Friend and Bridge to Enlightenment and Creativity now available at Amazon and iTunes.

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