Transcript
Paul Enns , The Moody Handbook of Theology (Secunderabad: Authentic Books, 2008) 383.
B. Varghese, Pauline Theology: An Introduction (Adoor: El-Shalom Publishers, 2008) 108.
C.R. Mercer, 'Albert Schweitzer', in Historical Handbook of Major Biblical Interpreters Edited By. Donald
K. Mc/kim (Downers Grove: IVP, 1998), 523.
D.E. Nineham, "Albert Schweitzer" in The SCM Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation, Edited By. R.J.
Coggins and J.L. Houlden (London: SCM Press, 1990), 613.
Albert Schweitzer, the quest of the Historical Jesus (USA: Macmillan Paperbacks, 1964) 424.
S.J. Hafemann, "Paul and His Interpreters" in Dictionary of Paul and His Letters (Downers Grove:
IVP, 1993), 674.
John K. Riches, A Century of New Testament Study (Cambridge: The Lutterworth Press, 1993), 43
Oscar Cullmann, Salvation in History (New York: Harper and Row, 1967), 29.
C.Marvin Pate, The End Of The Age Has Come The Theology Of Paul (Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995),30
C.Marvin Pate, The End Of The Age Has Come The Theology Of Paul (Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995),26.
S. Sobanaraj, Diversity in Paul's Eschatology ; Paul's View on the Parousia and Bodily Resurrection(Delhi; ISPCK, 2007)32
Sobanaraj, Op.Cit., 34
C.Marvin Pate, 31.
Sobanaraj, Op.Cit., 35
"Mysticism" in D.k. Illustrated Oxford Dictionary (London: Oxford University Press, 1998)541.
Gerald F. Hawthorne & Ralph P. Martin., eds, Dictionary of Paul and His Letters (England: Intervarsity Press, 1993)623.
Ibid., 624
E. Earle Ellis, Paul and His Recent Interpreters (Grand Rapids: Wm.B. Eerdmans .1979),32.
Gerald F. Hawthorne & Ralph P. Martin., eds., Op.Cit., 624.
Ibid.
Ibid., 433
Ibid
Ibid
Ibid., 435
Ibid., 436
Ibid.
C. Marvin Pate, Op.Cit., 32
Primitive Magical Mysticism deals with the concept of being one with God
Intellectual mysticism is the rational view of mystical elements.
John K. Riches, Op.cit., 45.
H.J. Schoeps, The Theology of the Apostle in the light of the Jewish Religious History, trans. Harold Knight (London: Lutterworth, 1961), 46.
H.Ridderbos, Paul: An Outline of His Theology, trans. J.R,De Witt (London: SPCK, 1982) 31.
A.L. Moore, Parousia in the New Testament, NovTsup (Leiden: Brill, 1966), 45
E. Earle Ellis, Paul and His Recent Interpreters (Grand Rapids:Wm.B. Eerdmans .1979),32
Ibid.
Stephen Neill, and Tom Wright. The Interpretation of the New Testament 1861-1986.( Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), 404
ESCHATOLOGICAL APPROACH OF ALBERT SCHWEITZER ON PAULINE EPISTLES
Prepared By: Charley Joseph Zachariah
INTRODUCTION
Eschatology is the branch of theology which deals with the doctrine of last things. This field of study deals with the heaven, hell, the return of Jesus Christ, resurrection of the dead, rapture, tribulation, millennial life, judgements etc. Apostle Paul was the author of the thirteen epistles in New Testament. Through his epistles apostle writes about the fundamental doctrines and issues apologetically. Among them the doctrine of last things was more symbolic, allegoric and mystic. Several scholars attempted to interpret the mystic approach of Paul. Among them Albert Schweitzer was the prominent. Let us take a brief look on Schweitzer and his eschatological approach on Paul.
PAULINE ESCHATOLOGY
There is diverse trends of thoughts can be discerned from the Paul's eschatology. The sovereignty and the final victory of God, who alone will complete the work of redemption that has begun in Christ is the main message of Paul's eschatology (1 Cor. 15: 55f). In spite of the apocalyptic framework in Paul's eschatology his ideas are related to the human beings and to the world. . . His eschatological teaching strongly opposes anxiety, faint- heartedness and indolence (inactivity) (Phil. 4: -9). Apostle Paul the unique personality in the Christendom who was renowned as pastor, teacher, pioneer, theologian, and ultimately the apostle to Gentiles portrayed a perfect picture about the doctrine of last things through his epistles. There are various theological scholars like R.H.Charles, C.H. Dodd who tried to interpret the eschatological recordings of apostle –Paul. Albert Schweitzer is a prominent theologian among them who tried to interpret the eschatology of Apostle Paul in a unique way. Let us take a brief look on Albert Schweitzer and his Eschatological approach on Paul.
ALBERT SCHWEITZER (1875-1965)
Albert Schweitzer was born on January 14, 1875 in Kaysersberg, upper Alasace, Germany. He obtained doctorates in philosophy, theology and music before he was thirty, and later added a doctorate in Medicine. He was the student of H. J. Holtzmann. In 1913 he put an end to his academic career when he went to Lambarene in French Equatorial Africa to found a hospital and carry on missionary work. After being interned by the French in the world war, he returned to Lamberene in 1924, rebuilt his hospital on a larger scale and continued working there for the rest of his life. Albert Schweitzer is one of the world's truly great men and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, gave up a brilliant career in music, philosophy and theology to found his famous mission hospital in French Equatorial Africa.
THE ORIGIN OF SCHWEITZER'S APPROACH
Until the 1970's German Scholarship maintained that, the centre of Paul's thinking was the concept of righteousness of God. This view was particularly in Germany. Outside of Germany some of the leading scholars sought to understand Paul's doctrine of justification as merely one aspect of a large panorama of theological themes. Yet due to the influence of the Reformation and its questions on the study of Paul and the leading role that German Scholarship played for the first seventy years of the twentieth century, the dominant question within Pauline studies has remained, is justification by faith the conceptual centre of Paul's thought?
W. Wrede argued in his book Paulus that doctrine of justification was not the generating principle of Paul's thinking but merely polemical doctrine aimed at Judaism of his day. The generating principle of Paul's theology Wrede maintained was his eschatological conviction that Christ had ushered in the proleptic beginning of the Kingdom of God. But it was left to Albert Schweitzer to take Wrede's emphasis eschatology and understand it as the frame work of Paul's thought. This was the argument in his influential book. The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle (1931). He combined the Wrede's emphasis on eschatology with Adolf Deismann's earlier development of Paul's Christ-Mysticism. Hence for Schweitzer, being "in Christ" was not merely a cultic reality as Deissman has emphasized but an eschatological reality which was experienced physically and sacramentally and brought about by the inaugurated eschatological kingdom of God now present with the turn of the ages.
METHODOLOGY OF ALBERT SCHWEITZER.
Schweitzer's work is much concerned with the details of Paul's eschatological schema. He takes what might seem some of the most speculative and indeed unsystematic, parts of Paul and creates from them a detailed account of the end, which then functions to explain the rest of Paul's theology. Through his studies Schweitzer pointed out the connections between Paul's eschatology and Jewish thought.
KEY CONCEPTS IN SCHWEITZER'S ESCHATOLOGY
CONSISTENT ESCHATOLOGY
Consistent eschatology may be defined as "the consistent interpretation of Jesus' eschatology as an expectation of an imminent end". Thus it is the imminent expectation of a dramatic cosmic event.
5.2 JEWISH APOCALYPTICISM
Apocalypticism, like the term eschatology has to do with the events at the end of time. Jewish apocalypticism was a strong force at the time of Paul, almost at fever pitch. Judaism expected certain events to precede the coming of the kingdom of God especially the Great Tribulation (a time of unparalleled suffering through their enemies before the arrival of Messiah) and religious apostasy (a large-scale turning away from God in the face of persecution). It is followed by the arrival of Messiah, resurrection of the righteous dead, judgement of the wicked and cosmic renewal or a new creation. The controlling factor behind all these events was the belief that this age would give way to the age to come.
But the Christian eschatology believed that the age to come had already dawned in the life, death and the resurrection of Jesus. That is, apocalyptic end time events had occurred within but without replacing, human history. So in effect, Christian eschatology refers to the overlapping of the two ages in Christ, which is a significant modification of a purely future-oriented apocalypticism. Albert Schweitzer tries to understand Apostle Paul in the background of Jewish apocalypticism which is altered by the life of Christ.
ESCHATOLOGICAL APPROACH OF ALBERT SCHWEITZER
Albert Schweitzer , the proponent of Konsequente Eschatologie (consistent eschatology) and a staunch critic of the Religiongeschichte,( The Religions school of thought which dominated the scholarly understanding of Paul for the first half of the twentieth century) emphasised eschatological motif as the key to the whole of Paul's Preaching. According to Schweitzer, Paul like Jesus was influenced by Jewish apocalyptic thought; hence, Jewish apocalypticism must be seen as the matrix not only for his earliest Christian convictions but also for all later developments in his thought. He located Paul within the dramatic worldview of Jewish apocalyptic eschatology which entailed a dualistic contrast between the 'natural' world or age and the 'supernatural' world or age. He saw Paul departing from the apocalyptic eschatology in his view of the eschaton that the future supernatural age has arrived in the resurrection of Jesus and that the believers are already in the supernatural age. He claimed that Paul with his concept of 'eschatological mysticism' alters the relation of Christians to the world age and the angelic powers that rule in it. . . According to Schweitzer, "the conception of the things of the end is a unity, and remains the same throughout." He saw that from the first letter to his last, Paul's thought is uniformly dominated by the expectation of the immediate return of Jesus, of the judgement, and the messianic glory. In his view Pauline eschatology is synthesis of the eschatology of the prophets and the son of Man eschatology of Daniel".
6.1 ALBERT SCHWEITZER AND FUTURIST ESCHATOLOGY
Albert Schweitzer set the stage for twentieth- century dialogue relative to Pauline theology by calling attention to the apocalyptic nature of the apostle's message. According to him, Judaism, not Hellenism, was the soil out of which Paul's thought grew. Schweitzer's view on Pauline eschatology is that Paul believed in the immediate return of Jesus Christ, of judgement and messianic glory. It was clearly pictured in his epistles. Schweitzer considered Paul's teaching to rest on Jesus' proclamation that the kingdom of God was a hand. While for Jesus this kingdom was still future, Paul faced a new situation: If Christ's resurrection was the beginning of the age to come, why had the other events associated with the history (the great tribulation, resurrection of righteous believers etc) not also happened? Schweitzer's proposed solution to this quandary was Christ Mysticism.
6.2 CHRIST MYSTICISM
The word mysticism can be defined as spiritually allegorical or symbolic thoughts that are beyond the understanding. From this perspective Christ Mysticism can be understood broadly as a generic term covering an enormous range and variety of experience in relation with Christ. On this description Paul was undoubtedly a mystic. Albert Schweitzer claimed Paul's mysticism was unique since it took the form of union with Christ ("Christ Mysticism") rather than direct union with God. The apostle's teaching on "being-in-Christ" which provided the clue to his entire thought was founded on theology and was essentially eschatological.
6.3 BEING IN CHRIST
Schweitzer gave much importance to the concept of 'in Christ'. He believed that Paul's en christo concept aroused from the failure or kingdom or God i.e., the end of the world to arrive at Christ's death and resurrection. According to Schweitzer it is the characteristic feature of Pauline Mysticism (Phil 1:13-14; 2:1 & 24). Through this Schweitzer focuses on the fact that Christians are fellow members of the body of Christ and they have nothing to do with individual mysticism. But through the critical study of the en christo concept Schweitzer states that Paul was more focused on the corporate significance of being in Christ.
6.3.1 THE USAGE OF THE EXPRESSION
The expression is used over a triangular field of meaning rather than in a single, "technical" sense.
Local Sense: At one corner of the field one finds the examples of the form "certain ones / churches are in Christ." As the term is related with certain local community or individual it is grouped into local
Instrumental Sense: Christ is viewed as the instrument of God's action (2cor 5:19 - God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ)
Sense of Modality: Here the usage stress the manner in which an action occurs (Rom 9:1- 'I speak the truth in Christ')
6.3.2 THE ORIGIN AND BASIS OF THE EXPRESSION.
The expression "in Christ / the Lord" probably came from earlier Jewish Christianity. Paul's utilization of the expression is sturdy and strong marked by richness and fullness of flavour. For the clear understanding of the concepts, he used the images of light in the Lord (Eph 5:8), united in one body (Rom 12: 5.)
6.3.3 THEOLOGY OF 'en Christo'
This term is uses to assert the distinctiveness of God's saving action through Christ (Romans: 6; 23). Through this phrase Apostle Paul pictured the soteriological motif of Father God. Apostle also focuses in the holy and obedient life of faith under Christ's lordship through the usage of this term (Gal 5.6)
6.3.4 SCHWEITZER'S ESCATOLOGICAL UNDERSTANDING OF 'en Christo'
Schweitzer stated that the Pauline formula "in Christ" signifies that the kingdom of God or age to come has begun- but for Christians only, because through union with the Spirit they have died and been raised with Christ. Schweitzer writes, "Through Christ we are removed out of this world and transferred into the state of existence proper to the kingdom of God, notwithstanding the fact that it has not yet appeared." In explain how it was that, despite Jesus' resurrection, the kingdom of God had not yet appeared on earth. Thus Paul stands between primitive magical mysticism and the more developed forms of intellectual mysticism. According to Schweitzer's understanding on Paul, union with the eternal is mediated only through union with Christ.
CONTEMPORARY CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF SCHWEITZER'S ESCHATOLOGY
"Schweitzer has introduced much confusion into Paul's Eschatology by his idea of Mysticism."- H.J.Schoeps
"The use he (Schweitzer) makes of various Jewish eschatological schemas is also highly artificial, and the antithesis he constructs in this respect between Jesus and Paul certainly cannot be maintained" – H. Ridderbos
"The reconstruction of Paul's thought in terms of consistent eschatology is questionable at many points"- A.L.Moore
"Schweitzer argues that Paul's "en christo" concept arose from the failure of the kingdom of God, i.e., the end of the world, to arise at Christ's death and resurrection"- E. Earle Ellis
Through the opinions of above said famous theological scholars we can arrive at a conclusion that Schweitzer's approach on Paul's eschatological thinking also lacked clarity. Because according to Ellis, Schweitzer argued that Paul's "en christo" concept arose from the failure of the kingdom of God, i.e., the end of the world, to arise at Christ's death and resurrection. But against Schweitzer Dodd contended that in Christ's death the 'age to come' did arrive; eschatology was 'realized' as much as it ever would be in history. The believer already participates in the Kingdom (Col 1:13), and at death he fully enters the eternal, i.e. the eschatological realm. How then is Paul's anticipation of a future parousia to be accounted for? (It is the principle thought of Jewish Apocalypticism). Dodd goes back to Pfleiderer for an answer: in 1 Thess. 4 Paul has a strictly Jewish eschatology but in I cor.15 modifies it with the concept of a 'spiritual' body; II Cor. V., which places believer in heaven at death, expresses the view of mature (and 'Greek') Paul. Although 'futurist or realized' has now been recognized as an improper either/or Schweitzer made admirable attempt to achieve a comprehensive interpretation of New Testament eschatology.
EVALUATION AND CONCLUSION.
Before Albert Schweitzer the famous theologians like A. Deissmann and J.Schneider came up with "Passion Mysticism" (based on his experiences of suffering within the context of the dying and rising with Christ theme). A. Wikenhauser's "Ontological Mysticism" (refers the end time's events as an objective state rather than an experience.)But the four major questions that Schweitzer raised against the critical understanding of Pauline eschatology made a drastic change in the above said mystical approaches towardsa Pauline studies. First is the question of history of religions (In what way does he reflect the shift from Judaism to Hellenism in the early church?). Second question is that of theology (which ideas are central and which Peripheral: Justification and participation or being-in-Christ).Third question is that of exegesis (A detailed verse by verse study of the letters is therefore a vital element in the study of Paul.) Fourth and final element is that of modern appropriation of Paul. Even though the critical scholarship that developed after Schweitzer found out many drawbacks in his eschatological approach, the contributions of Schweitzer remain fundamental landmark in the progress of research.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cullmann, Oscar. Salvation in History. New York: Harper and Row, 1967.
Ellis, E. Earle. Paul and His Recent Interpreters. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans .1979.
Enns, Paul. The Moody Handbook of Theology. Secunderabad: Authentic Books, 2008.
Hafemann, S.J. "Paul and His Interpreters." Dictionary of Paul and His Letters. Downers Grove: IVP, 1993. 673-676.
Hawthorne, Gerald F. & Ralph P. Martin., eds. Dictionary of Paul and His Letters. England: Intervarsity Press, 1993. 622-624.
Mercer, C.R. 'Albert Schweitzer.' Historical Handbook of Major Biblical Interpreters. Edited by Donald
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Moore, A.L. Parousia in the New Testament. Leiden: Brill, 1966.
Neill, Stephen and Tom Wright. The Interpretation of the New Testament 1861-1986. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Nineham, D.E. "Albert Schweitzer." The SCM Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation. Edited by R.J. Coggins and J.L. Houlden. London: SCM Press, 1990. 612-615.
Pate, C.Marvin. The End Of The Age Has Come The Theology Of Paul. Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995.
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Sobanaraj, S. Diversity in Paul's Eschatology: Paul's View on the Parousia and Bodily Resurrection. Delhi; ISPCK, 2007.
Schoeps,H.J. The Theology of the Apostle in the light of the Jewish Religious History. Translated by Harold Knight. London: Lutterworth, 1961.
Varghese, B. Pauline Theology: An Introduction. Adoor: El-Shalom Publishers, 2008.
"Mysticism." Dk Illustrated Oxford Dictionary. London: Oxford University Press, 1998. 541.
