Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism [Hardcover]

 

 

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Because of my misunderstanding of Paul's role in the development of Christianity, I had always seen him as a perverter of Christ's message, in his role in the creation of the Christian (Catholic) Church which I had always thought was not what Christ had intended. I read Jacques Maritain's work on Paul. I purchased this work with some trepidation, fearing that I might be bored by more on Paul, or become tired of French argumentation and vocabulary; however, I was greatly surprised by this book and have just spent hours reading it. As I doubt there is anything that can be called "absolutely true" in Christian historical studies, I would recommend this as an insightful interpretation of the times and events and thoughts of St Paul, and as a more accessible work than Maritain's. Interpretations of the epistles (the ones currently recognized as having been written by Paul), especially the conflict between Paul and Peter and the other Jerusalem apostles, the opposition between the Law and the revelation of the Resurrection, the question of focus on Gentile or Jew, the very important meaning of "neither Greek nor Jew", (etc) and explication of the alterations or editing of works to make Paul more conformist to the doctrines being formulated a century or two later and for inclusion in the New Testament (to oppose heresies that were coming into existence), and the 'sell-out' to the Greek mode of thought (in opposition to Paul's wishes, as revealed in the "neither Greek nor Jew" portions of his writings) make this a fascinating read. Yes, everything the 3-star rating by Tron Honto says is true. In some ways, this is a work of atheist theology, which seems to be current, with such exponents as Badiou's great buddy, Slavoj Zizek, and Andre Comte-Sponville in his "Little Book of Atheist Spirituality." But it is a worthwhile read: maybe someone who is a singularity, as was Paul of Tarsus, will come along and smash 'the matrix of global capitalism and pathetic liberal democracy' (it seems that neither Badiou nor Zizek are fans of either nor of the pudgy intellects of the bourgeois left). But, while we wait, take a look at how Christianity came about, and how it has been perverted from the message intended by Paul, and read Paul's message (which could still apply to a contemporary singularity) - as Badiou says, 'it was a revolution upon which we are still dependent.' Needless to say, I have changed my opinion of Paul, though I have not been converted. (Also of interest is mention and quick outline of Pier Paolo Pasolini's film script, set in the 1940s, of Paul's life. Interesting how Communists have been long fascinated with Christianity.) Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism

Badiou's extended essay on Paul may be a bit amateurish and crude from a theological and/or historical perspective [his intents and aims, he admits, are solely subjective], but despite this, it achieves a noteworthy amount of novel philosophical insight using the texts of Paul as a launchpad.

There are two sides to this book. On one hand, Badiou appears as a sort of atheist apologist for Paul, whom he seeks to clear of common insults against his person popular since Nietzsche and others (such as being a mysoginist, a despiser of earthly life, etc.) Badiou wants us to view Paul not in the popularized polemic distortion that pervades atheists in academia but rather as the prototypical 'poet-thinker of the event'.

On the other hand, in so far as one can say this of Paul, Badiou wants to extract from his portrayal a revolutionary philosophy of 'the event' and its founding of universiality. Here, the argument becomes complexly interwined with the words of Paul and Christian discourse; however, it brings with it a certain uncanny lucidity as the revolutionary universiality of the Resurrection in Paul's discourse sets the scene to disolve and overcome the particularities of the Judaic and Greek status quo.

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