Liberating Paul The Justice of God and the Politics of the Apostle

includes index and biblioraphy

Part One Paul in the service of death 1. Paul in the service of death .....3 South carolina, 1709 .....3 The massachusetts bay colony, 1637 ....4 Kulmhof, greater germany (chelmno, Poland) 1941-1945 .....6 The new world order: Guatemala, 1982 .....7 The pauline legacy as an ideological weapon of death ....9 The dynamics of paul`s enslavement .....19 Toward the liberstion of paul ....20 Paul in the service of liberation ....22 2. The canonical betrayal of the apostle ....25 Facing the facts of pseudepigraphy .....25 Reexamining paul`s social conservatism .....31 Paul and slavery (I) 1 Corinthians 7:21 ....32 Paul and slavery (II): Philemon ....40 The pauline gospel and the redemption of slaves ....48 Paul and women: The curious persistence of I Corinthians 14:34-35 .....52 3. The mystification of the apostle paul ....55 The gentrification of the apostle ....57 The question of paul`s social location ....58 The problem of explaining paul`s conservatism again .....61 Paul`s dejudaization .....66 The classical reading of paul-against judaism .....66 The inadequacy of the new perspective on paul .....69 A third way ....71 The theological marginalization of paul`s politics ....72 The babylonian capitivity of the letter to the romans ....73 Paul`s deployment in the struggle against liberation theology .....75 Toward a new approach ....82 A quest for the historical paul ....84 Reading paul in a confessional ituation .....86 Paul`s preferential option for the poor and oppressed ....87 A personal angle of vision ....89 Part two From death to life 4. Paul and the violence of the cross ....93 The political significance of crucifixion .....94 The politics of jesus death .....99 Mimetic conflict, violence, and christian origins ....101 Paul and the mythologizing of the cross ....105 Did paul obscure the political character of jesus death ....109 Oaul and the powers ....114 Did paul mystify jesus death within the logic of sacrifice ....124 Did paul think the torah killed jesus ....131 The cross and the justice of god ....138 5. The apocalypse of the crucified messiah ....141 Apocalyptic mysticism and paul`s conversion .....141 Saul the pharisee`s motives in persecuting the church ....143 Apocalypticism and resistance in roman-occupied judea .....140 The fourth philosophy ....151 An apocalyptic rationale for resistance: 4 Maccabees ...154 The book of biblical antiquities and the psalms of solomon ....156 Apocalypticism and political realism among the pharisees ....159 Sacred violence and paul`s conversion ....167 The apocalyptic contours of paul`s apostolate ....175 6. Apostolic praxix: living out the dying of jesus ....181 The ideological context: The theology of empire ....184 Communities of discernment .....189 Discerning the life: Peace and security .....189 Discerning the life: Justice and faith .....190 Communities of resistance ....195 Communities of solidarity with the crucified .....198 Challenging the ideology of privilege : 1 corinthians ....204 discerning and resisting the ideology of privilege .....206 A holy solidarity with rthose not yet free ....211 Confronting the ideology of power (Romans) ....214 The theological offense of romans 13:1-7 ....217 The historical problem of romans 13:1-7 ....218 An exhortation against rivairy ....221 Liberating paul ....226