4 - Belief

Summary

The following section explores the relationship between the transformed Pauline symbolic universe visible in Colossians and Ephesians and the changed social situation reflected in these writings. Instead of simply noting the differences between Colossians and Ephesians and the authentic letters, it relates the historical circumstances, providing possible catalysts to change, to the cosmological symbolism evident in these deutero-Pauline writings. The connection between the social situation rendered by the death of the Apostle and the transformation of the belief system is of particular relevance.

Changing symbols

In light of Paul's place in the chronology of early church writings, it is not surprising that subsequent doctrinal developments, both in the New Testament and in later church writings to the present day, have often been measured according to Pauline standards. Unfortunately, this may have had an adverse effect on the investigation of development after Paul. Instead of relating relevant texts to their social situations in order to understand the significance of a changed belief system, scholars have been content simply to highlight differences. Deutero-Pauline writings have only rarely been considered as closely linked with the life of a movement. These writings have been held up as the first evidence of the dangers threatening the purity of the earliest days. One may judge deutero-Pauline writings to be lacking in the kind of religious genius that characterizes the writings of the Apostle. However, this should not preclude consideration of deutero-Pauline writings in terms of their own communal situations.