Economic ideas in the Pauline Epistles of the New Testament

History of Economics Review, Wntr, 2002 by George Gotsis, Sarah Drakopoulou Dodd

Introduction

The economic thought of proto-Christianity has been under-researched, given its influence on subsequent economic philosophies and theories. This is perhaps particularly so for Pauline economic ideas. Even within theology, studies of Paul's economic ethics are few and far between. The aim of this paper is to fill a gap in the literature on earliest Christianity, by presenting a brief overview of Paul's economic ideas. The need for such a study is demonstrated, not least, by the importance of the Pauline movement and its works to the earliest Christians. This is perhaps best indicated by the fact that thirteen of the twenty-seven New Testament works are from the Pauline school (Chamblin 1993, p. 27), although only seven of these are widely recognised as being genuinely Pauline in nature, rather than emanating from his 'school' after his death (1). Equally, the material itself merits study, as Georgi (1992, p. 141) has indicated: 'Biblical studies, theology, and the church at large are unaware that the authentic writings of Paul contain some of the most elaborate literary reflections on the flow of money surviving from the ancient world'.

It is customary to divide the development of the earliest (New Testament) Christianity into three stages: the Jesus Movement, the Jerusalem Love Community, and the Pauline Mission. The Jesus Movement was an essentially rural charismatic grouping centred around the living Jesus, and presented in the Gospels. The Jerusalem Love Community was the first urban church group, who lived a quasi-communal life of prayer, until famine and then war reduced them. Their story is told in Luke, Acts and the so-called Catholic epistles (2). Overlapping with the Jerusalem phase is the mission of Paul to the cities of Asia Minor and Greece, which represented a major extension of the purview of Christianity. Paradoxically, the Pauline canon contains the earliest Christian documentation; 1 Thessalonians is generally held to have been written in about 51 / 52 AD, which predates the writing of the Gospels considerably. The Pauline Epistles, however, are not systematic and thorough-going treatises, but a rather more contingent form of literature dealing with the specific problems of various churches, providing advice and theological guidance to Paul's new Christian communities. Although they cannot be divorced from their cultural, historical, and literary context, they do reveal certain coherent views of the society they relate to, its institutions and structures. Some scholars have pointed out that, in any case, to search for well-articulated economic theory in ancient texts is anachronistic, since it is improbable in the extreme that contemporary thought included a category 'the economy' as distinct from the political (macro) sphere, and the domestic household, where the economic, social and religious were considered inseparable parts of a whole (e.g. Malina 2001b, p. 17). Thus any analysis of the economic strands of thought in the New Testament must be interpreted in terms of both the theological and social constructs of the day, if they are to be understood.

Paul's economic ideas, once identified, and set in their socio-cultural context, are found to be markedly different from those of the Jerusalem Love Community, and strikingly dissimilar to the Jesus Movement's perception (see Drakopoulou Dodd and Gotsis 2000). For example, the introduction of a protowork ethic to Christianity is a Pauline innovation. New adherents to Christianity were required by Paul to remain in their specific calling (except where these entailed sinfulness), and no wholesale liquidation and disbursement of capital assets is recommended. Radical gospel precepts concerning property, poverty and wealth are thus partly compromised by a new theology more accommodating to the economic conditions of human co-existence. Paul's divergence from the two earlier phases of proto-Christianity, and the substantial subsequent influence of his view of an appropriately Christian economic behaviour, make him a worthy subject of examination. At least some of the differences between Paul and his precursors can be ascribed to the altered locus of proto-Christianity, as it grew beyond Palestine and through the Graeco-Roman world. This context must shape any discussion of Pauline economic thought, and will be introduced below, following a synoptic overview of some of the basic precepts of Pauline theology. It will then be possible to move on to a well-grounded review and analysis of economic ideas in the Pauline epistles.

The Nature and Orientation of Pauline Economic Theology

Pauline theology is a complex, interwoven set of beliefs, which cannot be done justice in a brief summary. However, some such contextualisation is required, and this will focus on the themes of Pauline universalism, eschatology, justification by faith, and the relationship of his work to Judaism.

Paul's apostolic self-conception reveals a universal missionary strategy, which may draw on well-established Old Testament models, like Moses (Hafemann 1995), or the Table of the Nations (Gen. 10, 1; Chr. 1:1-2:2; Scott 1995), Other writers have emphasised Paul's use of the image of the imperial emissary (3) as conciliator (Basch 1997). Some scholars (e.g. Sandnes 1990) evaluate this aspect of Pauline ministry by drawing on the perspective of prophethood, noting that his call and vocation parallel those of Old Testament prophets, as a divine imperative. Paul counts himself amongst the prophetic community (1 Cor. 14:29-32), while his preaching develops the ideal of the adoption of true believers as sons (Eph. 1:5). In terms of the patron-client relation terminology, Paul is understood as the broker of God's patronage over the community of believers. Paul transmits to the community knowledge and realities, which he aims to describe in the context of prevailing institutions of kinship and politics. As broker, Paul seems to enjoy access--albeit limited access--to some of the first-order resources under the control of his heavenly 'patrons' (Joubert 1995, pp. 216-217; Malina 1996, pp. 147 ff).