Free US delivery on orders $35 or over
You must sign in to add this item to your wishlist. Please sign in or create an account
Paul’s teaching about divine benefactions in Rom 12:6–8 extends the theme of worship that he establishes in Rom 12:1–2. Together, these passages address a uniquely gentile dilemma that many in his audience faced as new Christ-followers, which was the challenge of finding acceptable replacements for former cultic activities that were woven through all of life’s stages, from birth to death. One of the chief shortcomings of the scholars that have written about Rom 12:6–8 is a failure to address what Paul's gentile audience might have brought to his teaching and how his alignment of gifts with ritual (Rom 12:1–2) mirrored their polytheistic background. By analyzing examples from ancient texts and artifacts, Teresa Lee McCaskill shows that all seven of the terms Paul uses in Rom 12:6–8 would have had recognizable cultic antecedents for first-century worshipers in Rome. McCaskill presents a theoretical model that discusses how Paul’s gentile audience might have viewed the charismata and considered them as examples of sanctioned practices to replace former rituals. She also weighs the effectiveness of these particular gifts for furthering Paul’s missional objectives.
Published | Jan 09 2023 |
---|---|
Format | Ebook (PDF) |
Edition | 1st |
Extent | 206 |
ISBN | 9781978797017 |
Imprint | Fortress Academic |
Series | Paul in Critical Contexts |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
McCaskill offers a convincing new take on the gifts or charismata enumerated in Romans 12. Taking her lead from Paul’s remarks about sacrifice as the chapter opens, she situates gift language in a ritual setting, namely worship and the practice of reciprocity that defined divine-human relations in the ancient Mediterranean world. The mostly Gentile recipients of the letter would have understood gifts in that context, even as Paul redirected the language to articulate and advance the mission he advocated. Gifts, McCaskill demonstrates, have more to do with practices defining and propagating a new belief system than with community-structuring actions or offices.
Richard DeMaris, Valparaiso University
This book is available on Bloomsbury Collections where your library has access.
Your School account is not valid for the United States site. You have been logged out of your account.
You are on the United States site. Would you like to go to the United States site?
Error message.