Reviewed Book: Longenecker, Richard N. The road from Damascus: the impact of Paul\u27s conversion on his life, thought, and ministry. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997. McMaster New Testament studies; 2

Tite, Philip L.

English

Wilfrid Laurier University

ConsensusVolume 24Issue 1 Leadership into the 21st Century Article 145-1-1998The road from Damascus: the impact of Paul'sconversion on his life, thought, and ministryPhilip L. TiteFollow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensusThis Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by anauthorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.Recommended CitationTite, Philip L. (1998) "The road from Damascus: the impact of Paul's conversion on his life, thought, and ministry," Consensus: Vol. 24 :Iss. 1 , Article 14.Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol24/iss1/14Book Reviews 147example of methodology, but to a lay person, running into a discussion ofthe dating of fragments of a scroll from Qumran of St. Mark’s Gospel whilein pursuit of fragments of a codex lodged in Magdalen College, purport-edly from St. Matthew’s Gospel, is somewhat disconcerting. Similarly therepeated emphasis on the digraph iota beta as standing for twelve (ten-ftwo), causes one with “little Latin and less Greek” considerable difficulty,since iota is the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet. (This confusion is re-solved by asking at your local library. It turns out that in Archaic Greekthere was a letter allied with the Phoenician Vav, or the Hebrew Vaiv, lo-cated in the sixth position. When it became obsolete in the language, itwas retained for counting and arithmetic. It is called Digamma.) Althoughthe presentation is somewhat chaotic, following the argument is great fun.The conclusion reached is very plausible. Dr. Thiede does not dispute thepriority of St. Mark—he just pushes things back to the middle of the firstcentury. Thus it would be probable that many of those who had been eye-witnesses to all or part of Jesus’ teaching and ministry would have beenable to read and comment on the reliability of at least the Gospels of Markand Matthew, and quite likely that of Luke in addition. Discussion of theimplications for the church would lead us too far afield, and would be outof place in a book review. For an alternative view, it might be well to read“The Search for a No-Frills Jesus” in the Atlantic Monthly of December,1996,278/6 .John Scott-ThomasTrenton, ONThe Road from Damascus: The Impact of Paul’s Con-version on His Life, Thought, and MinistryMcMaster New Testament Studies 2Richard N. Longenecker, editorGrand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997XV + 253 pp. $25.00The purpose of the McMaster New Testament Studies (MNTS) seriesis to make accessible substantial biblical scholarship to a non-specialist,though educated, audience through annual symposium volumes. In thiscollection of essays on Paul readers are brought into the very complex worldof Pauline studies. The conversion/ call of Paul has been one of the mostprofound and debated conversions in Christian tradition and scholarly dis-cussion. Here the focus is placed upon the impact of Paul’s conversion inhis later thinking as a Christian leader.The essays included in this volume are varied in the range of the-matic topics addressed. After Richard Longenecker’s introduction, (xi-xv),the following eleven essays are given: Bruce Corley, “Interpreting Paul’s148 ConsensusConversion—Then and Now” (1-17); Richard N. Longenecker, “A RealizedHope, a New Commitment, and a Developed Proclamation: Paul and Je-sus” (18- 42); I. Howard Marshall, “A New Understanding of the Presentand the Future: Paul and Eschatology” (43-61); Terence L. Donaldson,“Israelite, Convert, Apostle to the Gentiles: The Origin of Paul’s GentileMission” (62-84); James D.G. Dunn, “Paul and Justification by Faith”(85-101); Seyoon Kim, “God Reconciled His Enemy to Himself: The Ori-gin of Paul’s Concept of Reconciliation” (102-124); Bruce W. Longenecker,“Contours of Covenant Theology in the Post-Conversion Paul” (125-146);Stephen Westerholm, “Sinai as Viewed from Damascus: Paul’s Reevalua-tion of the Mosaic Law” (147-165); Gordon D. Fee, “Paul’s Conversion asKey to His Understanding of the Spirit” (166-183); Judith M. Gundry-Volf,“Paul on Women and Gender: A Comparison with Early Jewish Views”(184-212); and G. Walter Hansen, “Paul’s Conversion and His Ethic ofFreedom in Galatians” (213-237). Each essay has its own bibliography,and indices are included at the end of the book.There are several major issues within Pauline studies regarding theconversion accounts which should be addressed in any book on Paul’s con-version/call. Specifically, debate has emerged over the sources involved inthe discussion. We have three secondary accounts in Acts (9:1-31; 22:1-21;26:1-23) and several brief biographical sketches in Paul’s authentic letters(esp. Galatians 1:11-24; cf. Philippians 3:5-11). The disputed Paulineletters play a lesser role, if any, in reconstructing Paul’s life and thought(e.g., the Pastorals are likely written over 40 years after Paul’s death, and ata time when ecclesiastical structures were being validated on reformulatedPauline ethics). Difficulties emerge due to the diversity between these ac-counts (e.g., Paul’s experience in Acts reflects a more evident break with Ju-daism than in Galatians where a positive portrayal of Paul’s pre-Christianlife is presented; Philippians is a bit more tricky, but even there a positiveview of Paul’s Jewish heritage is presented, though with Christ being seenas even greater—this likely reflects more of a “call” wherein Paul was el-evated to a mission rather than as a break with Judaism). Even in Actswe have three very different narratives evidently presented by the same au-thor, unless we wish to resort to source-critical hypotheses (not uncommonin Lukan studies).Out of this first issue that scholars must contend with, arises the secondissue as to the nature of Paul’s conversion. Was it an actual conversion,wherein Paul left Judaism and embraced a new religion? This is the tra-ditional view, normally advocating a legalistic understanding of Judaism.Or, did Paul understand himself to have received a special calling fromGod/Christ and thereby still saw himself within the Jewish religion? Thisis the more common academic understanding of Paul’s conversion/call andreflects both the multiplicity of Judaism—indeed Judaisms—and the Jew-ish nature of early Christianity. An added issue is the nature of the diverseaccounts (an issue I feel needs to be raised, which is not in this volume).The only true narrative accounts of a conversion/call are the three ActsBook Reviews 149accounts. Indeed only in Acts do we find a Damascus road experience.Paul does not explicitly make any such reference in his autobiographicalaccounts. Also, the autobiographical accounts are rhetorical devices usedby Paul, framed to authenticate his authority within local church situa-tions (Galatians is the best example; the most substantial work on thisrhetorical usage was done by George Lyons in the mid-1980s). In otherwords, the dynamics involved in understanding Paul’s conversion, and hisself-understanding and reformulating of his religious notions, are very com-plicated and require serious methodological care. Some of these issues areindeed touched on in Longenecker’s introduction, and one has the sensethat such sensitivity will typify the entire volume. Unfortunately, many ofthe issues involved are not dealt with adequately in this collection. We findconstant usage of Pseudo-Pauline letters to refer to Paul’s own thought,without qualification of the disputed nature of the texts (a notable excep-tion which proves the rule is Gundry-Volf ’s essay where such care is indeedtaken; contrast this with Fee’s unqualified usage of the Pastorals). In manycases the Pauline material is forced into the Acts account with neitherqualification nor plausible substantiation (Kim attempts to offer such qual-ification, by arguing that 2 Corinthians 5:11-21 contains allusions to theDamascus experience, but I find his case methodologically suspect due toreading Acts into the ambiguous statements in Corinthians). The essays re-fer back to an event (the “Damascus Road” event) when in the undisputedtexts there is no such event or location noted. Indeed, to use the Damascusroad experience as the referent point for unifying these essays complicatesthe source-base question by suggesting (especially to non-specialists) a har-monization of the divergent accounts.The focus of these various essays is to look at how Paul’s conversion/ callaffected his later thought and ministry. Paul’s adoption of Christianity is,of course, a major event in his life and surely would have influenced his laterthinking. The difficulty, however, is that these essays all seem to identifyPaul’s conversion/call as the originating point for understanding all of hisviews. Again, methodological caution is thrown to the wind as a free-for-all occurs in explaining Paul’s thought. Surely, there would have beenother possible influences in Paul’s life that would have influenced his views.The broader (multi)cultural context that Paul lived within is not given itsplace, and Hansen even goes so far as to reject outright Hellenistic influenceson Paul (in an attempt to refute H.D. Betz) with no more substantiationthan a general distaste for Betz’ suggestion of such influence (“such aninterpretation. . .leads to a rather disappointing conclusion. . .” p. 234). Eventhe Jewish aspects of Paul’s life are generally not given their due, despitethe fact that Paul was a Jew and continued to see himself as a Jew. Ratherthan a continuity between Paul and Judaism being drawn (the insightfulwork Alan Segal comes readily to mind), a demarcation between his formerJudaism and his new Christianity seems to emerge throughout most of theessays. Some noteworthy exceptions are Gundry-Volf and, at least initially,Westerholm. The conservative Christian tone of these essays explains manyof these tendencies (see especially the last sentence in the book on p. 236).150 ConsensusDespite my criticisms of this collection of essays, there are some note-worthy strengths. Some real gems emerge from these essays, such as Cor-ley’s history of interpretation, Donaldson’s excellent study of the Paulinemission to the Gentiles, and Gundry-Volf’s wonderful gender discussion.The thematic issues dealt with are important and are presented in veryreadable form. I could see this collection of essays being useful for itsintended audience to explore Paul’s theological views, such as in a studygroup or a classroom setting. Many of the essays emerge out of the authors’own published works and these are conveniently referenced in the bibliogra-phies. In summary, this collection of essays would have been better entitledThematic Studies of Pauline Thought than The Road from Damascus. Asa diverse thematic collection, we have been well supplied with fascinatingand useful reading.Philip L. TiteWilfrid Laurier UniversityWaterloo, OntarioHe Could Not Do Otherwise: Bishop Lajos Ordass,1901-1978Laszlo G. TerrayGrand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.,1997This book makes timely reading when we are celebrating the fiftiethanniversary of the Lutheran World Federation. It provides a few glimpsesinto the work of that organization and its impact on events in Hungaryduring the Communist era. Older Lutherans may recall the impact ofBishop Ordass’ sermon at the opening service of the LWF Assembly inMinneapolis in 1957, a short time after his release from prison. He wasalso elected twice as a vice-president of the LWF, although the politicalsituation in Hungary never allowed him to serve in that office.The book will also interest history buffs who want to learn somethingabout life in the Lutheran Church in a Communist country. Lajos Ordasswas a Hungarian Lutheran bishop who faithfully stood up to Adolf Hitler’sNazism and Joseph Stalin’s Communism.While the book chronicles Ordass’ entire life, a significant portion con-centrates on his struggles with the Communist regime in Hungary and issketchy about life during World War H. I found Eric Gritsch’s translationa bit stilted, but the material held my interest most of the time.Kenn WardWinnipeg, Manitoba

The road from Damascus: the impact of Paul\u27s conversion on his life, thought, and ministry

Scholars Commons

Consensus
Volume 24
Issue 1 Leadership into the 21st Century Article 14
5-1-1998
The road from Damascus: the impact of Paul's
conversion on his life, thought, and ministry
Philip L. Tite
Follow this and additional works at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus
This Book Reviews is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Consensus by an
authorized editor of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact scholarscommons@wlu.ca.
Recommended Citation
Tite, Philip L. (1998) "The road from Damascus: the impact of Paul's conversion on his life, thought, and ministry," Consensus: Vol. 24 :
Iss. 1 , Article 14.
Available at: http://scholars.wlu.ca/consensus/vol24/iss1/14
Book Reviews 147
example of methodology, but to a lay person, running into a discussion of
the dating of fragments of a scroll from Qumran of St. Mark’s Gospel while
in pursuit of fragments of a codex lodged in Magdalen College, purport-
edly from St. Matthew’s Gospel, is somewhat disconcerting. Similarly the
repeated emphasis on the digraph iota beta as standing for twelve (ten
-f
two), causes one with “little Latin and less Greek” considerable difficulty,
since iota is the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet. (This confusion is re-
solved by asking at your local library. It turns out that in Archaic Greek
there was a letter allied with the Phoenician Vav, or the Hebrew Vaiv, lo-
cated in the sixth position. When it became obsolete in the language, it
was retained for counting and arithmetic. It is called Digamma.) Although
the presentation is somewhat chaotic, following the argument is great fun.
The conclusion reached is very plausible. Dr. Thiede does not dispute the
priority of St. Mark—he just pushes things back to the middle of the first
century. Thus it would be probable that many of those who had been eye-
witnesses to all or part of Jesus’ teaching and ministry would have been
able to read and comment on the reliability of at least the Gospels of Mark
and Matthew, and quite likely that of Luke in addition. Discussion of the
implications for the church would lead us too far afield, and would be out
of place in a book review. For an alternative view, it might be well to read
“The Search for a No-Frills Jesus” in the Atlantic Monthly of December,
1996
,
278/6 .
John Scott-Thomas
Trenton, ON
The Road from Damascus: The Impact of Paul’s Con-
version on His Life, Thought, and Ministry
McMaster New Testament Studies 2
Richard N. Longenecker, editor
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997
XV + 253 pp. $25.00
The purpose of the McMaster New Testament Studies (MNTS) series
is to make accessible substantial biblical scholarship to a non-specialist,
though educated, audience through annual symposium volumes. In this
collection of essays on Paul readers are brought into the very complex world
of Pauline studies. The conversion/ call of Paul has been one of the most
profound and debated conversions in Christian tradition and scholarly dis-
cussion. Here the focus is placed upon the impact of Paul’s conversion in
his later thinking as a Christian leader.
The essays included in this volume are varied in the range of the-
matic topics addressed. After Richard Longenecker’s introduction, (xi-xv),
the following eleven essays are given: Bruce Corley, “Interpreting Paul’s
148 Consensus
Conversion—Then and Now” (1-17); Richard N. Longenecker, “A Realized
Hope, a New Commitment, and a Developed Proclamation: Paul and Je-
sus” (18- 42); I. Howard Marshall, “A New Understanding of the Present
and the Future: Paul and Eschatology” (43-61); Terence L. Donaldson,
“Israelite, Convert, Apostle to the Gentiles: The Origin of Paul’s Gentile
Mission” (62-84); James D.G. Dunn, “Paul and Justification by Faith”
(85-101); Seyoon Kim, “God Reconciled His Enemy to Himself: The Ori-
gin of Paul’s Concept of Reconciliation” (102-124); Bruce W. Longenecker,
“Contours of Covenant Theology in the Post-Conversion Paul” (125-146);
Stephen Westerholm, “Sinai as Viewed from Damascus: Paul’s Reevalua-
tion of the Mosaic Law” (147-165); Gordon D. Fee, “Paul’s Conversion as
Key to His Understanding of the Spirit” (166-183); Judith M. Gundry-Volf,
“Paul on Women and Gender: A Comparison with Early Jewish Views”
(184-212); and G. Walter Hansen, “Paul’s Conversion and His Ethic of
Freedom in Galatians” (213-237). Each essay has its own bibliography,
and indices are included at the end of the book.
There are several major issues within Pauline studies regarding the
conversion accounts which should be addressed in any book on Paul’s con-
version/call. Specifically, debate has emerged over the sources involved in
the discussion. We have three secondary accounts in Acts (9:1-31; 22:1-21;
26:1-23) and several brief biographical sketches in Paul’s authentic letters
(esp. Galatians 1:11-24; cf. Philippians 3:5-11). The disputed Pauline
letters play a lesser role, if any, in reconstructing Paul’s life and thought
(e.g., the Pastorals are likely written over 40 years after Paul’s death, and at
a time when ecclesiastical structures were being validated on reformulated
Pauline ethics). Difficulties emerge due to the diversity between these ac-
counts (e.g., Paul’s experience in Acts reflects a more evident break with Ju-
daism than in Galatians where a positive portrayal of Paul’s pre-Christian
life is presented; Philippians is a bit more tricky, but even there a positive
view of Paul’s Jewish heritage is presented, though with Christ being seen
as even greater—this likely reflects more of a “call” wherein Paul was el-
evated to a mission rather than as a break with Judaism). Even in Acts
we have three very different narratives evidently presented by the same au-
thor, unless we wish to resort to source-critical hypotheses (not uncommon
in Lukan studies).
Out of this first issue that scholars must contend with, arises the second
issue as to the nature of Paul’s conversion. Was it an actual conversion,
wherein Paul left Judaism and embraced a new religion? This is the tra-
ditional view, normally advocating a legalistic understanding of Judaism.
Or, did Paul understand himself to have received a special calling from
God/Christ and thereby still saw himself within the Jewish religion? This
is the more common academic understanding of Paul’s conversion/call and
reflects both the multiplicity of Judaism—indeed Judaisms—and the Jew-
ish nature of early Christianity. An added issue is the nature of the diverse
accounts (an issue I feel needs to be raised, which is not in this volume).
The only true narrative accounts of a conversion/call are the three Acts
Book Reviews 149
accounts. Indeed only in Acts do we find a Damascus road experience.
Paul does not explicitly make any such reference in his autobiographical
accounts. Also, the autobiographical accounts are rhetorical devices used
by Paul, framed to authenticate his authority within local church situa-
tions (Galatians is the best example; the most substantial work on this
rhetorical usage was done by George Lyons in the mid-1980s). In other
words, the dynamics involved in understanding Paul’s conversion, and his
self-understanding and reformulating of his religious notions, are very com-
plicated and require serious methodological care. Some of these issues are
indeed touched on in Longenecker’s introduction, and one has the sense
that such sensitivity will typify the entire volume. Unfortunately, many of
the issues involved are not dealt with adequately in this collection. We find
constant usage of Pseudo-Pauline letters to refer to Paul’s own thought,
without qualification of the disputed nature of the texts (a notable excep-
tion which proves the rule is Gundry-Volf ’s essay where such care is indeed
taken; contrast this with Fee’s unqualified usage of the Pastorals). In many
cases the Pauline material is forced into the Acts account with neither
qualification nor plausible substantiation (Kim attempts to offer such qual-
ification, by arguing that 2 Corinthians 5:11-21 contains allusions to the
Damascus experience, but I find his case methodologically suspect due to
reading Acts into the ambiguous statements in Corinthians). The essays re-
fer back to an event (the “Damascus Road” event) when in the undisputed
texts there is no such event or location noted. Indeed, to use the Damascus
road experience as the referent point for unifying these essays complicates
the source-base question by suggesting (especially to non-specialists) a har-
monization of the divergent accounts.
The focus of these various essays is to look at how Paul’s conversion/ call
affected his later thought and ministry. Paul’s adoption of Christianity is,
of course, a major event in his life and surely would have influenced his later
thinking. The difficulty, however, is that these essays all seem to identify
Paul’s conversion/call as the originating point for understanding all of his
views. Again, methodological caution is thrown to the wind as a free-
for-all occurs in explaining Paul’s thought. Surely, there would have been
other possible influences in Paul’s life that would have influenced his views.
The broader (multi)cultural context that Paul lived within is not given its
place, and Hansen even goes so far as to reject outright Hellenistic influences
on Paul (in an attempt to refute H.D. Betz) with no more substantiation
than a general distaste for Betz’ suggestion of such influence (“such an
interpretation. . .leads to a rather disappointing conclusion. . .” p. 234). Even
the Jewish aspects of Paul’s life are generally not given their due, despite
the fact that Paul was a Jew and continued to see himself as a Jew. Rather
than a continuity between Paul and Judaism being drawn (the insightful
work Alan Segal comes readily to mind), a demarcation between his former
Judaism and his new Christianity seems to emerge throughout most of the
essays. Some noteworthy exceptions are Gundry-Volf and, at least initially,
Westerholm. The conservative Christian tone of these essays explains many
of these tendencies (see especially the last sentence in the book on p. 236).
150 Consensus
Despite my criticisms of this collection of essays, there are some note-
worthy strengths. Some real gems emerge from these essays, such as Cor-
ley’s history of interpretation, Donaldson’s excellent study of the Pauline
mission to the Gentiles, and Gundry-Volf’s wonderful gender discussion.
The thematic issues dealt with are important and are presented in very
readable form. I could see this collection of essays being useful for its
intended audience to explore Paul’s theological views, such as in a study
group or a classroom setting. Many of the essays emerge out of the authors’
own published works and these are conveniently referenced in the bibliogra-
phies. In summary, this collection of essays would have been better entitled
Thematic Studies of Pauline Thought than The Road from Damascus. As
a diverse thematic collection, we have been well supplied with fascinating
and useful reading.
Philip L. Tite
Wilfrid Laurier University
Waterloo, Ontario
He Could Not Do Otherwise: Bishop Lajos Ordass,
1901-1978
Laszlo G. Terray
Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.,
1997
This book makes timely reading when we are celebrating the fiftieth
anniversary of the Lutheran World Federation. It provides a few glimpses
into the work of that organization and its impact on events in Hungary
during the Communist era. Older Lutherans may recall the impact of
Bishop Ordass’ sermon at the opening service of the LWF Assembly in
Minneapolis in 1957, a short time after his release from prison. He was
also elected twice as a vice-president of the LWF, although the political
situation in Hungary never allowed him to serve in that office.
The book will also interest history buffs who want to learn something
about life in the Lutheran Church in a Communist country. Lajos Ordass
was a Hungarian Lutheran bishop who faithfully stood up to Adolf Hitler’s
Nazism and Joseph Stalin’s Communism.
While the book chronicles Ordass’ entire life, a significant portion con-
centrates on his struggles with the Communist regime in Hungary and is
sketchy about life during World War H. I found Eric Gritsch’s translation
a bit stilted, but the material held my interest most of the time.
Kenn Ward
Winnipeg, Manitoba


https://scholars.wlu.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1562&amp;context=consensus

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