Paul’s Reduction of the Dual Commandment: The Significance of Worldliness to Messianic Life

Jesus' dual commandment to love God and neighbour, in that order, was clearly central to the teachings of the earliest communities of believers. Paul’s reduction of this twin commandment (Galatians 5.13; Romans 13.9) to love of neighbour was therefore very significant, as Spinoza and Taubes bot...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Baker, Gideon 1973- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group [2020]
In: Political theology
Year: 2020, Volume: 21, Issue: 7, Pages: 606-622
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Paul Apostle / Agamben, Giorgio 1942- / Heidegger, Martin 1889-1976 / Wichtigstes Gebot / Event / Usage
IxTheo Classification:CB Christian life; spirituality
HC New Testament
VA Philosophy
Further subjects:B Hos me
B Heidegger
B Agamben
B Spinoza
B Taubes
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Description
Summary:Jesus' dual commandment to love God and neighbour, in that order, was clearly central to the teachings of the earliest communities of believers. Paul’s reduction of this twin commandment (Galatians 5.13; Romans 13.9) to love of neighbour was therefore very significant, as Spinoza and Taubes both noticed. How, then, to account for Paul’s audacity? Building on related readings of Paul from Heidegger and Agamben, particularly their respective interpretations of Paul’s hos me (“as not”) of 1 Corinthians 7.29-32, this article seeks a context for Paul’s reduction. It finds it in Paul’s messianic conception of worldliness as something to appropriate or use, but never as something to transcend in otherworldliness. Whether appropriation (Heidegger) or use (Agamben) is a better rendering of this insight into the messianic vocation is also discussed. While appropriation continues to assume a subject that seizes worldliness, use has the advantage of conceiving messianic subjectivity as entirely in-the-world.
ISSN:1743-1719
Contains:Enthalten in: Political theology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/1462317X.2020.1787603