(++) The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle = Die Mystik des Apostels Paulus (1931 Schweitzer / Montgomery), book (English ed.)

The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle (1931) is the English edition of Die Mystik des Apostels Paulus (1930 Schweitzer), book. Translated from the German by William Montgomery.

Abstract

Schweitzer is a watershed figure in Paul studies. He took Pauline theology in two new directions. Unlike the history of religion school's emphasis on the Hellenistic background of Paul, Schweitzer's apocalyptic Paul was thoroughly Jewish. This eschatological interpretation of Paul is reminiscent of his work on Jesus and largely dependent upon it. "From his first letter to his last Paul's thought is always uniformly dominated by the expectation of an immediate return of Jesus, of the judgment, and the Messianic glory." The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle, 52. Schweitzer concludes his survey of Paul's eschatological theology with Philippians 4:5: "The Lord is at hand!" Schweitzer had already debunked the history of religion school's Hellenistic interpretation of Paul in Paul and His Interpreters (1912). Moreover, unlike the Lutheran emphasis on Paul's theology of justification by faith, Schweitzer placed at the center of Pauline theology a mystical participation with Jesus through his death and resurrection. Schweitzer wrote in the wake of World War I and was heavily influenced by existential philosophy. One also wonders how extensively Schweitzer's personal odyssey in Africa influenced his mystical participationist theology. - Ronald Ruark, University of Michigan

Editions

Published in London [England]: Black; and New York, NY: Holt, 1931. Reprinted in the 1950s and 1960s. Reissued in Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998; with a new foreword by Jaroslav Pelikan.