Thursday, December 10, 2009

Spiritual Forces and Sanctification

Here is a great quote from a paper from Bruce Longenecker, which (for me) casts a new light on Romans 8 and Paul's discussion of sanctification:
“Widespread in the Greco-Roman culture of Paul’s day was the belief that the world is populated by a multitude of suprahuman powers in constant conflict with each other. Human beings could become pawns and players in the rivalry and struggles that marked out the otherworldly realm. The spirit world could envelop the concrete world, as demonic spirits, and spiritual forces were thought to be alive and well, influencing human circumstances and destiny.

The Letter to the Galatians demonstrates that Paul could envisage the world in similar ways. So, for instance, he speaks of the Galatians having been ‘enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods’ prior to their Christian commitment (4:8). Moreover, Paul, having been transformed by God, claims to that ‘Christ lives in me’ (2:20), and hopes that his efforts among the Christians in Galatia will result in Christ being ‘formed in you’ (4:19). Paul expects the formation of Christ to be evident within the social relations of Galatian Christians, and this, for Paul, is first and foremost a matter of moral character; that is, Christian transformation is to be enacted in the giving of oneself for the benefit of others (5:13; 6:2) after the manner of Christ’s own selfless giving (1:4; 2:20). As Paul envisages the situation in Galatia, however, he perceives other spiritual realities to be at work, suprahuman forces that foster forms of moral character contrary to that of Christ and his people.”
Let's imagine sort of a straw-man "modern view." (Take these numbers with a grain of salt--the exact numbers aren't the point.) In a modern view, 90% of people are "free agents"--they are spiritually autonomous. 9% (maybe) are Christians, who are under the influence of the Holy Spirit, if all is going well, and the Spirit's role is to very very gradually make them a little more like Jesus. (And the remaining 1% are, say, shamans who are under a darker spiritual influence?)

In Paul's world, the 98% were under the influence of whatever deities or spiritual forces had jurisdiction where they were. Those 98% were constantly trying to appease the evil spirits/gods while pleasing the more benign entities. And 2% (or whatever) were Christians who'd put themselves under the aegis of the Holy Spirit.

It puts a different spin on Romans and Galatians to realize this: The effect of the Spirit seems much more immediate and powerful in this world view. Paul didn't have to explain that the Spirit would work to change your character--it was assumed if the Spirit of the creator of the universe were indwelling you, you'd notice. And just as importantly, you'd be free from other spiritual influences.

The $1,000 question, then, is how well Paul's understanding of his spiritual context translates to our modern context. The traditional conservative reading says that we should follow Paul's view of the spiritual world, which appears consistent with Jesus'. And this is based on the thought that even if Jesus, having emptied himself of his divine "omnis", didn't know everything (Mt 24:36; Philip 2:5-8), surely the Spirit ensured he was not captive to lies which would poison his teachings. I.e., he might not have known germ theory of diseases, but that didn't affect his presentation of the Gospel.

Is it possible that Paul's view of the spiritual world was correct for 1st-century Rome but not the 21st-century West? Hard to imagine.

But if we enter Paul's world, we have to acknowledge that a saving grace of the Gospel is to free us from influences most of us never see or credit.
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Cor 4:4)
Praise God that he has opened our eyes!

[Refs: Bruce W. Longenecker, “Until Christ is Formed in You: Suprahuman Forces and Moral Character in Galatians,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 61, 92 (1999); The Rival Sacrifices of Elijah and the Priests of Baal, 1545, by Lucas The Younger Cranach (b. 1515, Wittenberg, d. 1586, Weimar)]

2 comments:

Aunt Amy said...

I like this. It's a very interesting and "connected" point of view. Reminds me a lot of "This Present Darkness" by Frank Peretti.
Thanks for sharing!
AA

Tim said...

Hi Amy! How delightful to hear your feedback! (I didn't expect anyone to actually read this. :-) I'll be interested in hearing what you think of the next post...