Big Gringo
NT Reflecting Pool - Jan. 26
Paul's Conversion & Ours
We mostly talked about Paul's conversion today, though examining the different recountings by Paul of his conversion in Acts 9, Acts 22, Acts 26, and Galatians 1. I hadn't realized how contextual Paul was in re-telling his conversion story, nor how adept Luke was as a story-teller in shift the focal element in each recounting of Paul's story, depending on who the audience was. This is the nature of contextualization. Not only did Luke & Paul shift the focal elements in the story in order to address the unique context of the story-telling, but the change in details also reflected the progressive development or "maturity" of their own thinking & reflection.
Today's discussion was helpful in reflecting on my own conversion and the Lordship commitment that I've made to Jesus. When I first went to college, I had a powerful engagement with Jesusa that radically changed my relationship with him. Experientially, it felt like I began following Jesus for the first time. And then my next year, more transformation. With each subsequent development of my faith or my theological thinking or my pragmatic approach, I was tempted to re-evaluate what came before as illegitimate or incomplete.
Until I came to realize that the whole process was part of my conversion. Starting long before I went to college, as a 1st grader who didn't like church at first, to a third grader who rejoiced over his first bible, to a fourth grader who chose to be baptized, and on, and on. Now, solidly in my 30's and a new father, I realize the life path of re-birth that comes from following Jesus.
Getting back to Paul, one way that we looked at Paul's story in class was by piecing together a timeline of Paul's story from Acts, and Galatians, trying to recreate a chronological map of the events leading up to and following his conversion. For Paul, his conversion on the road was significant to Paul's sense of the origin of his authority. I hadn't realized how much time was involved from his conversion to his association with the Jerusalem church to his public ministry. As much as there is to know about Paul, there is so much that happened in his personal timeline that we just don't know about. Just like my personal timeline - there are things that I share differently in each retelling and other things that always stay the same.
We mostly talked about Paul's conversion today, though examining the different recountings by Paul of his conversion in Acts 9, Acts 22, Acts 26, and Galatians 1. I hadn't realized how contextual Paul was in re-telling his conversion story, nor how adept Luke was as a story-teller in shift the focal element in each recounting of Paul's story, depending on who the audience was. This is the nature of contextualization. Not only did Luke & Paul shift the focal elements in the story in order to address the unique context of the story-telling, but the change in details also reflected the progressive development or "maturity" of their own thinking & reflection.
Today's discussion was helpful in reflecting on my own conversion and the Lordship commitment that I've made to Jesus. When I first went to college, I had a powerful engagement with Jesusa that radically changed my relationship with him. Experientially, it felt like I began following Jesus for the first time. And then my next year, more transformation. With each subsequent development of my faith or my theological thinking or my pragmatic approach, I was tempted to re-evaluate what came before as illegitimate or incomplete.
Until I came to realize that the whole process was part of my conversion. Starting long before I went to college, as a 1st grader who didn't like church at first, to a third grader who rejoiced over his first bible, to a fourth grader who chose to be baptized, and on, and on. Now, solidly in my 30's and a new father, I realize the life path of re-birth that comes from following Jesus.
Getting back to Paul, one way that we looked at Paul's story in class was by piecing together a timeline of Paul's story from Acts, and Galatians, trying to recreate a chronological map of the events leading up to and following his conversion. For Paul, his conversion on the road was significant to Paul's sense of the origin of his authority. I hadn't realized how much time was involved from his conversion to his association with the Jerusalem church to his public ministry. As much as there is to know about Paul, there is so much that happened in his personal timeline that we just don't know about. Just like my personal timeline - there are things that I share differently in each retelling and other things that always stay the same.
posted by Scott @ 1:15 PM
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