I imagine most of us know that the church used Paul’s letters to develop a theology around Jesus’ life and teachings. Although those letters address specific concerns in particular churches, they do assume a rather coherent perspective.
Most of the people in my parish appreciated Paul. However, some berated him over two matters.
The first was that he imposed an orthodoxy on the church that silenced other interpretations. Admittedly, the Church has used him that way at times. However, we can thank God it was he and not most of the others. His theology actually encourages different viewpoints.
It ultimately rests on grace. God’s love frees us from legalism, which demands conformity. It builds the unity of the church on believers cooperating by sharing their different spiritual gifts.
The beginning of 1 Corinthians 13 epitomizes that thought when it maintains that none of the marvelous gifts are truly Christian unless they’re based on love. Love is the only commonality. In fact, Paul encourages some mature believers to follow practices they know are not essential in order to help those who still think they are necessary.
Every part is essential to functioning according to God’s will. It is important to recognize that diversity is part of our identity in a time when some are insisting they have the one and only way to serve Christ.
That brings up the second issue some find troublesome. They believe Paul is a misogynist whose writing has denied the dignity of women to this day. Undoubtedly, some passages in the letters are truly upsetting and have constantly been used to insist a healthy social order depends on male superiority, often white male superiority.
Some scholars find reasons to believe these are not Paul’s words at all. They think they are redactions some inserted to push back against Jesus’ and Paul’s liberating treatment of women. In Galatians, Paul proclaimed “In Christ there is neither male nor female.” In other parts of his letters, he reports women running house churches and even entitles one an apostle.
Of course, these passages remain in the Bible, so we might have to simply recognize that we have been led by the Spirit to realize they are wrong.
However we do it, we certainly have to oppose Christian Nationalists and others who use those texts to support white male superiority. We live in a time when many leaders are fighting equity policies encouraging diversity by claiming they are prejudiced against white males.
Paul’s story begins, of course, with him rounding up and prosecuting those who differed from the pure orthodox Jewish message. Once confronted by Jesus, Paul opened himself to the diversity of other perspectives.
