A New Perspective on Paul? Rereading Paul in a Time of Ecological Crisis

Abstract

Contemporary contexts, crises, and moral values shape the interpretation of Paul, even in rigorously ‘historical’ scholarship, and the new perspective on Paul well illustrates this point. Our current ecological crisis provides a new and urgent context for interpretation, yet one that has scarcely yet registered on the agenda of recent Pauline studies. Beginning with the obvious eco-texts (Rom. 8.19-23; Col. 1.15-20), but insisting on the need to move beyond these, this essay explores the potential for a broader ecological engagement with Paul, arguing that Paul offers resources for an ecological theology and ethics at the heart of which stands the vision of God’s incorporative transformation of the whole creation in Christ and the associated imperative to embody that transformation in human action shaped by the paradigm of Christ’s self-giving for others.