Theo Todman's Web Page - Paper Abstracts

Notes

• I’ve no time to comment properly on this Paper, or on the trail of papers “linked” below, in which David Bentley Hart locks horns with N.T. Wright. However, …
• Enough to say that – while I know Tom Wright’s work well – I’d not heard of David Hart.
• The Aeon article seems rather provocative, and really impossible for non-specialists to evaluate. I’m not sure what the average Aeon reader would make of it.
• The suggestion that Paul’s Gospel has been misunderstood requires much more extensive exegesis than can be given Hart’s 3-pager, which is really just a wild swipe.
• The article is really a plug for Hart’s “subversively literal” NT translation. Much could be said about this, and in particular the point made here that doctrinal presuppositions influence translations. However, while it’s good to be jolted out of one’s doctrinally-comfortable presuppositions by an unusual translation, and to read the text anew, can’t this be achieved by reading an interlinear?
• While it’s interesting to see a focus on Paul’s doctrine – or background assumption – of (evil) “spiritual beings”, isn’t it rather tendentious to assume that this is Paul’s primary interest? Has a proper look at the balance of Paul’s oeuvre been undertaken?
• There are some interesting remarks from my perspective on “flesh versus spirit” and the thought that “soul¹” is the animating principle of the (fleshly / animal) body². I wonder what the “Christian Materialists³” think of this?