In the early 1960s the learned Scripture scholar Krister Stendahl helped launch what has become known as the “New Perspective on Paul.” His article was entitled “Paul and the Introspective Conscience of the West” (first published in English in 1963).
The Swedish scholar began by claiming that Western readers make a significant error in reading St. Paul primarily through the eyes of St. Augustine and Martin Luther, seeing Paul’s conversion as the transformation of a troubled conscience, convicted of sin by the Law, to a comfortable conscience soothed by Christ and His gift of forgiveness.
Instead, the Harvard exegete argued, we should understand Paul as having a “robust” conscience so that he can confidently assert that he was “flawless” in fulfilling the Law and does not dwell on his shortcomings in observance of the Law (Philippians 3:6).
In the light of the dramatic occurrence that took place on the Damascus Road, as narrated three times in the Acts of the Apostles (chapters 9, 22, 26), we know that what Paul had considered his glorious achievement as a righteous Jew he, in retrospect, viewed as “refuse” by comparison with newfound faith in Jesus as the Messiah.
Thereafter, Stendahl re-reads Paul’s assertions through a new lens, that of Paul the confident Pharisee. Thus, Paul’s statement that “Christ came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am the foremost” (1 Timothy 1:15) must be interpreted as an expression not of contrition but of Paul’s awareness that he was ignorant until God in His mercy revealed to him His true Messiah.
When Paul made an allusion to his new direction in life he referred to God’s revelation of Jesus in him, noting that “God who had set me apart before I was born and called me through His grace was pleased to reveal His Son to me” (Galatians 1:15-16).
This was such a total reorientation of lifestyle that Paul could speak of not living his own life any more but rather Christ’s. “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself (over to death) for me” (Galatians 2:19b-20).
Stendahl’s concern to understand Paul led him to stress to his readers that Paul’s letters are primary sources when it comes to understanding our subject, while texts such as Acts are secondary sources.
In a later work that republished his seminal article, Stendahl went on to propose several other contrasting ways to reinterpret Paul, noting that the Apostle lived not just with gentiles but also with Jews, that we should probably speak rather of Paul’s “call” than his “conversion,” of justification rather than forgiveness, of weakness rather than sin, of love rather than integrity and of Paul’s uniqueness rather than his universality (Paul among Jews and Gentiles, Fortress 1976).
This month, we shall have the unique privilege of celebrating on a Sunday the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments has granted permission for this observance at one Mass in each parish church on Jan. 25, 2009 in recognition of its occurrence in the bi-millennial year of the birth of St. Paul.
The first reading for this Mass is an account of the powerful experience that Paul underwent as he proceeded to Damascus to persecute the fledgling church. The narrative may be drawn from Acts 9:1-22, which is Luke’s description of what happened to Paul or 22:3-16, which is Paul’s description, albeit framed by Luke, told several years later to a Jewish audience.
Luke also articulates a third account of the happening on the Damascus Road in Acts 26:2-23, where Paul tells of his call to bring light to nations who dwell in darkness in the presence of the gentile King Agrippa and his Queen Bernice.
How then are we to understand what happened when Paul met the Risen Lord? Stendahl would have us avoid the term “conversion” because this term is used by Paul to speak of gentiles “turning” from the worship of foreign gods to serving the “living and true God,” the Father of Jesus Christ.
By contrast, Paul’s encounter with Jesus the Messiah in dwelling in the members of Christ’s Body did not lead him to abandon his earlier worship and service of God but to see it pointing in a new direction — toward Jesus, the crucified one who was now alive forever in His church.
I would suggest that those who want to embrace Stendahl’s perspective and speak of Paul’s “call” rather than of his “conversion” may readily do so. However, the church wisely sees that the change of direction issuing from Paul’s encounter with Christ on the Damascus Road was so profound and earth-shattering for Christian history that it rightly refers to this as Paul’s “conversion” even in an accommodated sense.
Likewise, Christian disciples who are called to let the Risen Life of Christ continue to transform their lives with good reason, in an accommodated sense rightly refer to this as ongoing “conversion.”
Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, S.J. is a noted Scripture scholar and writer. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Fordham University, Master of Divinity and Doctor of Theology degrees from Toronto School of Theology and a Licentiate in Theology from Regis College. Archbishop Prendergast taught in Halifax at Atlantic School of Theology from 1975-1981, then was Rector of Toronto's Regis College from 1981-87 and Dean of Theology from 1991-1994. For 10 years he wrote a weekly column on Scripture for The Catholic Register.
In the early 1960s the learned Scripture scholar Krister Stendahl helped launch what has become known as the “New Perspective on Paul.” His article was entitled “Paul and the Introspective Conscience of the West” (first published in English in 1963).
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