Delivering the Cosmos

Delivering the Cosmos September 11, 2014

In a couple of recent essays, Beverly Gaventa describes the cosmic, apocalyptic dimensions of Paul’s gospel. Gaventa is editor of a recent study of Romans 5-8, Apocalyptic Paul. In her own contribution, a study of the “I” of Romans 7 against the background of David’s Psalms, she explains the breadth of the apocalyptic reading of Paul:

“Over the last several years, as I have endeavored to contribute to an apocalyptic interpretation of Paul’s letter to the Romans, I have emphasized the cosmic horizon of the letter. By that phrase I mean that Paul’s understanding of the gospel is not addressed solely to the individual or solely to Israel or solely to Gentiles. Instead, the gospel has to do with a conflict between God and antigod powers; these powers go by various names, in Romans they are most prominently named Sin and Death.” The individual becomes a site of this conflict, as Gaventa explains with reference to Romans 7: “the conflict between God and the powers of Sin and Death is not just about some other ‘they’ or about a privileged ‘us’ that somehow has been removed from Sin’s grasp. It is also about the ‘I’ who delights in God’s will and faithfully undertakes what is holy and right and good, since the cosmic power of Sin reaches even into our best selves and produces despair” (91).

In a study of “cosmos and soteriology” in Apocalyptic and the Future of Theology, Gaventa explains that the kosmos language of Romans is linked with humanity’s calling to praise God: “Paul early on identifies the refusal of doxology as the root of humanity’s enslavement to Sin.” Because of its refusal to acknowledge God as Lord, “the entire kosmos . . . is deprived o speech.” Redemption from the state of sin, then, brings humanity to its created destiny, a destiny fulfilled only in praise to the Creator (187-8).

In the same essay, she emphasizes again the apocalyptic dimensions of Paul’s gospel by focusing on “conflict language” in Romans. Bodily members are “weapons” of either Sin or righteousness. We have been enemies, and once invaded by the Spirit, we become battlegrounds in the battle between Spirit and flesh, which are at enmity with one another. Again, Gaventa emphasizes that there is a war on, and we are battlegrounds (190-1).


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