Session 1: Short papers
Erin Heim, University of Oxford, ‘We Preach Christ Crucified: An Examination of Shame and Weakness in Paul’s Christology’
The stigma of crucifixion in the ancient world presented the authors of the New Testament documents, and indeed other early Christian interpreters, with a (now familiar) theological problem to overcome: how can a crucified Messiah be an exalted Lord who is worthy of worship? In this paper, I will argue that Paul’s Christology holds the paradox of a crucified-exalted Lord together in ways that disrupt ancient notions of gender and power, and that these disruptions are at the centre of Paul’s understanding of God’s character as revealed in Christ. Furthermore, Paul insists that the crucified Messiah is worthy of emulation for followers of Jesus, and he expects that this will translate into social practices within Christian communities that disrupt expected norms (e.g., 1 Cor 11:17-22). Though most scholarship has focused on how Paul’s instructions disrupt the behaviour of those who have more power, feminist, womanist, and postcolonial scholars have rightly pointed out that Paul’s call to “cruciformity” lands differently for the marginalised. The conclusion of the paper will critically examine the relationship between Paul’s Christology and discipleship, and whether and how contemporary Christians might be called to enter into the shame of the cross.
Madison Pierce, University of St Andrews, ‘Servant, Prophet, Messiah: Untangling the Roles of Jesus in Luke and Acts’
In Luke and Acts, through recontextualizations of Scripture, Jesus is depicted inhabiting the roles of servant, prophet, and messiah. In NT studies, and especially NT theology, the distinctive emphases of each of these roles are not maintained, and the three are collapsed into one role—king-messiah. This paper will demonstrate how Luke utilizes Deutero-Isaiah to present Jesus as its servant figure(s) as well as how he utilizes it and other Jewish literature and traditions to depict Jesus as a prophet, often more specifically a prophet-messiah. Ultimately, in Luke, by means of Isa 61:1-2 among others, these strands do converge where Jesus becomes a prophet-messiah who is also servant. Generally, despite these emphases in secondary literature, Luke’s messianism is depicted in primarily royal terms, despite the more varied use of messiah language and traditions.
Session 2: Panel discussion (joint session with Reception, Critical Theory, and Interdisciplinary Studies)
‘Theology and/as Reception’
Session 3: Workshop on the ‘imminent parousia’ in Paul
Jamie Davies, University of Aberdeen, ‘The “imminent parousia” in Paul: contextual considerations’
Simon Gathercole, University of Cambridge, ‘The “imminent parousia” in Paul: exegetical considerations’
Philip Ziegler, University of Aberdeen, ‘The “imminent parousia” in Paul: theological considerations’