Paulus (Paul / 1904 Wrede), book
Paulus (1904) is a book by William Wrede.
Abstract
Wrede argued that, unlike Jesus, Paul radically rejected the Law as an antagonistic force from which human beings needed to be redeemed. According to Wrede, Paul’s attitude toward the Mosaic Law is fundamentally negative and abolitionist:
- The Law is holy in origin but powerless in effect.
- It reveals sin but cannot conquer it.
- It was a temporary dispensation, superseded in Christ.
- Faith in Christ, not Torah observance, defines the people of God.
Thus, Wrede sees Paul as the founder of Christianity, precisely because of his radical stance on the Law.
"William Wrede’s Paulus represents one of the earliest systematic attempts to interpret the apostle Paul not through confessional or ecclesiastical categories, but within the broader framework of the history of religions. Written in dialogue with the Religionsgeschichtliche Schule, Wrede rejects traditional Protestant readings that portrayed Paul primarily as a theologian of justification by faith. Instead, he situates Paul firmly within the apocalyptic currents of late Second Temple Judaism. Wrede emphasizes Paul’s eschatological worldview, arguing that Paul’s thought is dominated by the expectation of the imminent end, the decisive act of God in Christ, and the transformation of cosmic powers. Central to the study is the claim that Paul’s categories of law, flesh, spirit, and faith must be understood in light of a mythological and apocalyptic dualism, rather than in purely ethical or juridical terms ... Wrede stresses that Paul’s theology cannot be reduced to continuity with the teaching of Jesus, insisting that Paul created something fundamentally new. While acknowledging Jewish roots, he portrays Paul as the founder of a distinctively Christian religion, in which Christ’s death and resurrection are the turning point of salvation history. The letter to the Romans is treated as a systematic expression of Paul’s eschatological vision, though Wrede insists that Paul was not a “systematic theologian” in the scholastic sense ... The book provoked considerable debate by shifting attention away from Protestant doctrinal categories toward a historical-critical understanding of Paul as an apocalyptic thinker. Its influence extended into 20th-century Pauline scholarship, paving the way for later discussions of Paul’s relationship to apocalyptic Judaism, and laying important groundwork for the “New Perspective” and subsequent approaches that situate Paul within the diversity of Second Temple Judaism.--
Editions
Published in Halle [Germany]: Gebauer-Schwetschke, 1904 / 2nd ed. Tübingen [Germany]: J.C.B. Mohr (P. Siebeck), 1907.
Translations
Table of contents
External links
- [ Google Books]