Paul's Necessary Sin

How can we know today what was happening in the minds and hearts of Paul and the first Christians so long ago? By getting below the surface of Paul's theology, the consistent key elements of early Christian experience are revealed in a way that throws light on the meaning of powerful religious experiences and movements both in the past and today. Illuminating for those who have never read a word on Paul yet disturbing and provocative for biblical scholars, this book tackles the topic of the religious experience of Paul and the first Christians. Lacking authentic knowledge of Paul's liberating experience, generations of translators and interpreters have inevitably and sometimes clumsily obscured Paul's meaning. In this book the scholarly accusation that Paul is incoherent is turned upside down to show how uncritically accepted ways of translating Paul mislead today's reader and introduce a mystifying complexity into scholarship on Paul. Taking the reader step-by-step through a painstaking restoration of the meaning of Paul's text, the colour and form of Paul's original vision are revealed. Contents: Bibliographical information; Introduction. Part One Liberation: A new revelation; Faith’s new way of listening; The freedom of obedience; Childhood under law. Part Two The Exposure of Sin: Childhood and sin; Sin and flesh. Part Three From Childhood to Adulthood: Infants in Christ; Coming of age; The inheritance. Part Four The Source of Freedom: God’s outcast: the transformation of Jesus; God’s fools: the transformation of a few; Seeing is becoming: the transformation of all. Conclusion; Indexes.