Jamie Davies

Writing a study in apocalyptic pastoral theology may sound like an exercise in "performative self-contradiction." But such an endeavor reminds us that the imminent expectation of the Lord's return, a pervasive hope in the first generation of the Jesus movement, is not an embarrassing, superfluous doctrine of little value to ordinary Christian life. Against the assumptions of many in the guild of New Testament studies, it was not Paul but Jesus himself who first gave Christian theology its apocalyptic urgency. From its very beginnings, then, Christian theology was "theology on the run." This was true for Paul, who penned his correspondence to Thessalonica while literally "on the run" from the city. Joining a long line of readers of these letters, Jamie Davies explores how Paul's eschatological conviction, together with convictions about epistemology and cosmology, constituted his "apocalyptic DNA," shaping every aspect of his thinking and practice. Through study of these contours of Paul's apocalyptic thought, Theology on the Run brings forward Paul in pastoral mode as he addresses the challenges of life in the "real world" of the fledgling Thessalonian church. A consideration of what Paul's apocalyptic thought might mean for his work as a practical and pastoral theologian in first-century Macedonia, concerned with planting and sustaining faithful churches in tumultuous times, presents a compelling argument for how and why those engaged in the ministry of the church today, and those who teach them, need an appreciation of Paul's apocalyptic pastoral theology in our own efforts to do "theology on the run." Readers of Paul often cite Ernst Käsemann's maxim that apocalyptic eschatology was the "mother of Christian theology." To this Davies adds another: "Christian ethics is lived-out eschatology." At the center of any account of ethics, of which pastoral theology is part, is the question of metaphysics—what is the "real world"? In the Thessalonian letters we see Paul bringing the apocalyptic reality of the new creation to bear on the pastoral situation in Thessalonica, facing challenges of grief, work, sex, truth, power, and oppression—enduring challenges for the church today. Paul meets these challenges by reframing them according to his apocalyptic gospel. As such, he demonstrates a pastoral theology that challenges us to think beyond Christian glosses on human philosophic traditions or social-psychological practices through the unbreakable relationship between this apocalyptic gospel and ministerial practice.

Revelation is perhaps the most misunderstood book of the New Testament. The challenge of reading Revelation well lies largely in appreciating its literary form as an 'apocalypse, ' a genre of writing full of bewildering imagery and complex structural features. The book's visions and images are not a code to be deciphered but a means of transforming the Christian theological imagination, disclosing in many-layered ways the nature of the powers of evil in the world, God's victory over them, and the church's call to faithful witness in the present time. At the theological heart of the book, however, is God's self-revelation in Jesus Christ. Since Revelation's literary form and its theological meaning are inseparable, this commentary approaches the challenge of interpretation by integrating these two horizons, reading Revelation both as a work of literature and a work of theology.Edited by Todd D. Still, Charles J. and Eleanor McLerran DeLancey Dean & William M. Hinson Professor of Christian Scriptures at Baylor University's George W. Truett Theological Seminary, the Reading the New Testament commentary series presents cutting-edge biblical research in accessible language.Jamie Davies (PhD, St Andrews) is Tutor of New Testament and Director of Postgraduate Research at Trinity College, Bristol (UK). His research largely concerns apocalyptic thought in the New Testament and other Second Temple Jewish and Christian literature, with a focus on the letters of Paul and the book of Revelation.

The Apocalyptic Paul is rapidly becoming one of the most influential contemporary approaches to the apostle's letters, and one which has generated its share of controversy. Critiques of the movement have come from all sides: Pauline specialists, scholars of Jewish and Christian apocalyptic literature, and systematic theologians have all raised critical questions. Meanwhile, many have found it a hard conversation to enter, not least because of the contested nature of its key terms and convictions. Non-specialists can find it difficult to sift through these arguments and to become familiar with the history of this movement, its most important contemporary voices, and its key claims. In the first part of this book, New Testament scholar Jamie Davies offers a retrospective introduction to the conversation, charting its development from the turn of the twentieth century to the present, surveying the contemporary situation. In the second part, Davies explores a more prospective account of the challenges and questions that are likely to energize discussion in the future, before offering some contributions to the apocalyptic reading of Paul through an interdisciplinary conversation between the fields of New Testament scholarship, Second Temple Jewish apocalypticism, and Christian systematic theology.

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