Performing Christianity: Ritual and Identity in Pauline Baptism (The Journal of the Orthodox Center for the Advancement of Biblical Studies Vol. 3, Issue 1, Winter 2011). (original) (raw)
Related papers
Beyond Victor Turner: Theorizing the Process in Pauline Baptism
In Wayne Meeks’s groundbreaking study The First Urban Christians, Pauline baptism was treated as analogous to rites of passage. With the aid of Victor Turner’s theoretical reflections, Meeks proposed that in Pauline baptism “reaggregation” retains many of the liminal characteristics of communitas, which properly belong to the “transition” phase of the ritual. Almost twenty-five years later, and almost forty years after Turner’s theory was first published, it is worthwhile to reconsider the theoretical basis for examining Pauline baptism as a ritual process. This paper contends that newer theoretical models better help us to grapple with the eschatological dimension of the Pauline process as well as its intimate relationship to communal meals in Pauline circles. This paper also argues that there is some instructive slippage between any ritual theory and what is occurring in Pauline baptism, which can function as an interpretive key to this somewhat idiosyncratic ritual.
FROM daSeooi TO OlKO ; 0 eo ) : SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION IN PAULINE CHRISTIANITY
2007
Unser Leben geht hin mit Verwandlung, Rilke says: Our life passes in transformation. This is what I seek to grasp in the theory of structuration.-Anthony Giddens, Central Problems in Social Theory The purpose of our journey is to attempt to construct a kind of ethnography of Christian beginnings.-Wayne Meeks, The Origins of Christian Morality A paper presented to the Pauline Epistles Section at the SBL annual meeting, Boston, Massachusetts, November 1999. Some of the research for this paper was undertaken while staying at the Theological Hall, Ormond College, Melbourne. I am most grateful for the excellent library facilities made available to me during that visit and to Craig de Vos for his comments on a first draft. I am also very grateful to Reidar Aasgaard for sending me a copy of his doctoral thesis after our meeting in Boston ("'My Beloved Brothers and Sisters!' A Study of the Meaning and Function of Christian Siblingship in Paul, in its Greco-Roman and Jewish Context" (University of Oslo, 1999) and to Dominic Rudman for his helpful comments on the paper.
Ethnic Reasoning and Early Christian Identity: A Pauline Theological Perspective
HTS Teologiese Studies / Teologiese Studies, 2020
Within the ethnic-reasoning position, which has gained momentum in recent years, it is argued that in the in-Christ identity there exists no dichotomy between natural, physical relationships and constructed, made-up relationships. Ethnicity is viewed as fluid and changeable and as including the category of religion, which is understood as involving a nation’s culture and their cultic and ritualistic practices. Yet, it is a question whether these notions are compatible with the way in which the in-Christ identity is portrayed, especially by Paul. In terms of the theological way in which ethnicity and even religious practices are portrayed, they rather belong to the domain of humanness or human conduct, and thus to the anthropological domain. In contrast, believers’ relation to Abraham and their new mode of identity in the S/spirit is portrayed as being in contrast with the anthropological domain or the domain of ‘flesh’, which includes things such as ethnicity, human conduct and even religious practices. This tension between divine identity and human or natural identity in the New Testament is accounted for and applied to the ethnic-reasoning position, which also influences the way in which the in-Christ identity finds cultural expression in the lives of present-day readers.
Baptism & identity: Pauline directives for Christian ethics
2011
By submitting this thesis/dissertation electronically, I declare that the entirety of the work contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the sole author thereof (save to the extent explicitly otherwise stated), that reproduction and publication thereof by Stellenbosch University will not infringe any third party rights and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification.
2022
Having a social identity is part of everybody’s life experience. In a way, personal renewal in terms of spiritual life and individual and social identity, is also a valid description of a Christian’s experience of being saved from divine condemnation through Christ, and being transformed by the Spirit (John 1:12-13). As a passionate historian of the Gospel and of the Church, and an evangelist particularly interested in individual development and group psychology, Luke and his work is quite open for a detailed analysis from the point of view of the Social Identity Theory (SIT). From Tajfel’s emphasis on individual identity within a group, to Turner’s attention to groups interaction in greater or larger social constructs, one could readily expect to find certain relevant emphases on social and spiritual identity in Luke-Acts. The present article is focused on Luke’s use of personal pronouns, namely of first person plural (“we”) and their derivatives or associated vocabulary, arguing that they open a valuable door in exploring identity expressions and transition in the first-century Church. In actual terms, this opposition is not between "us" and "them", as it is an opposition between "us" and "you". The Christ group and the Jewish traditional group, are quite close, at least, at the beginning of the Church history.
Interdisciplinary Approaches to Early Christian Identity, A Review Article
Barentsen, Jack. “Interdisciplinary Approaches to Early Christian Identity, A Review Article (Holmberg, Ed., Exploring Early Christian Identity (WUNT 1:226) and Holmberg & Winnenge, Eds., Identity Formation in the New Testament (WUNT 1:227)).” Biblische Zeitschrift 54, no. 2 (2010): 245–52., 2010