{"id":62684,"date":"2025-01-02T14:45:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-02T13:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/?p=62684"},"modified":"2024-12-22T21:49:06","modified_gmt":"2024-12-22T20:49:06","slug":"paul-the-apostle-philosopher-of-freedom-fellowship-and-otherness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/paul-the-apostle-philosopher-of-freedom-fellowship-and-otherness\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul the Apostle: Philosopher of Freedom, Fellowship, and Otherness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The thinking of Paul of Tarsus has come down to us in his letters written in ancient Greek. To understand them in depth, one must go back to this original source. Olivier Coutris has done this, revealing the first philosophy of freedom in Christian history. This sophisticated philosophy of freedom, based on individualized thinking freed from conformism, leads to a consciousness of humanity that can transcend all affiliations and religions.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cDo not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God\u2014what is good and acceptable and perfect.\u201d (Romans 12:2). Thus Paul speaks to the Romans. This verse is a marvel of brevity and a true philosophical compendium. The Greek verb suskh\u0113mat\u00edz\u014d<\/em>, \u201cto conform,\u201d contains the concept of being subject to a scheme (skh\u0113\u0303ma<\/em>). Paul therefore calls on the Romans to not submit to the prevailing schemes of their time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Renewal of the Intelligence<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The inner transformation or metamorphosis (met\u0103m\u00f3rph\u014ds\u012ds<\/em>) that Paul encouraged consisted of a renewal of the intelligence. The word anaka\u00edn\u014dsis<\/em> (renewal), which is composed of the prefix ana<\/em>-,<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> indicating a reversal upwards, to the origin, to the spiritual, and kain\u00f3s<\/em>, indicating the new, literally meant \u201cto be new again in one\u2019s consciousness.\u201d Here, we find an echo of the idea of \u201cemptiness\u201d taught by Buddhism or, more recently, for example, by Krishnamurti (1895\u20131986). It also refers to Rudolf Steiner\u2019s central idea of \u201cpure thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This renewal concerns no\u0169s<\/em>, the intelligence\u2014not the intellectual capacity as we understand it today, but the intelligence that connects the individual with the spirit. From the moment a human being is born in a place and time, he or she is shaped by a culture, a religion, a scientific or a political way of thinking. Overcoming these innate prejudices is the first step towards individual realization. The second step is to rise above the personal sphere in order to achieve the objectivity of intelligence (no\u0169s<\/em>), through which the individual fits into the unified world. Vladimir Vernadsky (1863\u20131945) understood the \u201cnoosphere\u201d as the communal spiritual sphere of all humanity. Nevertheless, this spiritual community of humanity is the opposite of conformity or \u201cunitary thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whoever wants to escape conformity must start by working with language. This is a truly Johannine task, for according to John, \u201cIn the beginning was the Word,\u201d the l\u00f3gos<\/em>\u2014a Greek concept that arose from the Indo-European root *le\u01f5-<\/em>, which expressed the essence of connectedness. It can be found in \u201creligion,\u201d \u201clegality,\u201d \u201clecture,\u201d lesen<\/em>, (German, to read). In the beginning, there was a connection between everything, in the beginning there was unity, an active unity. Steiner thus suggested that the meaning of words should be returned to, re-learned, and re-understand, and he placed special emphasis on the developmental capacity of the world and knowledge about the world: \u201cThe attainment of knowledge does not merely rest upon the fact that one learns to talk more about something in the way other people talk about it, and in just the same way they do; rather, it\u2019s really the acquisition of another piece of the world.\u201d<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Free Yourself From Automatism<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In the Middle Ages, the Seven Liberal Arts were practiced in order to liberate the soul. The illustrious School of Chartres invited its students to begin by purifying their souls to be able to approach concepts in a healthy way. The first of the liberal arts, grammar, consisted of discovering what words meant and how to organize them in order to express oneself. \u201cGrammar\u201d comes from the Greek gr\u00e1mma<\/em>, which refers to any unit of communication, from letters used to write words to musical notes to a unit of weight used to exchange materials. Grammar was the basis of communication. By practicing it, the students freed themselves from the traditional barriers to communication and learned to understand one another. Paul\u2019s letters are a foretaste of this art owing to their high semantic content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne who thinks they know something, doesn\u2019t yet know as one should know.\u201d (1 Corinthians 8:2, rev. by the author). These words sound like a Buddha sutra or a Japanese koan. Paul knew that the path of knowledge\u2014the inner path\u2014is fraught with pitfalls. What we believe we know results from our conditioning and, secondly, from our limited senses, which are therefore sources of illusion. Untrained knowledge is essentially based on automation. Few human beings master the creation of their thoughts and perceptions. A child is born with infinite potential. They can, for example, learn any language in the world, as they are still universal, filled with unimaginable wisdom. Through incarnation, they emerge from universality to become part of humanity as an individual. Regaining true knowledge is, in a way, a second birth; thus, we can say with Paul: to know (French, conna\u00eetre<\/em>, co-<\/em> + na\u00eetre<\/em>, to be born together with) is to regain in consciousness the universality from which all being emerges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steiner thus comments on Paul\u2019s words to the Corinthians: \u201cA human being doesn\u2019t see truth when he looks out with his eyes; he doesn\u2019t see reality when he looks into what is outside. Why not? Because, in his descent into matter, he, himself, has transfused external reality into illusion! It is the human being himself who has turned the outer world into an illusion by his deed!\u201d<\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> The world, as seen through the filter of the senses, is, indeed, an illusion inherent in the fact that one is embodied. But human beings can free themselves from their filters and develop suprasensible capacities. It\u2019s not the world that\u2019s an illusion, but rather just the way and manner in which human beings perceive it. Human beings create their own illusions by perceiving the world only with their ordinary senses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Uncial 0220. fragment from the New Testament letter of Paul to the Romans (4:23-5:3) in Greek. 3rd century.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Consciousness as Source<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Paul was the first Christian author to speak of \u201cconsciousness,\u201d but also one of the first to deal with the development of human consciousness. In his letters, the words s\u00fanesis<\/em><\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span> and s\u016dne\u00edd\u0113s\u012ds<\/em><\/span>5<\/sup><\/a><\/span> occur in nearly thirty places. These words can be translated as \u201cconscience\u201d or \u201cconsciousness.\u201d In the following, we will choose the wording \u201cconsciousness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conjunction with the verb s\u016dn\u012b\u0301\u0113m\u012d<\/em>, meaning \u201cto bring together by thought,\u201d the concept s\u016d\u0301nes\u012ds<\/em> expresses the movement at work in the process of consciousness. Philosophically, the second concept, s\u016dne\u00edd\u0113s\u012ds<\/em> (s\u016dn-<\/em> + e\u00edd\u014d<\/em>), was stronger and mirrored what consciousness itself was. In Greek, s\u016dn-<\/em> was an associative prefix. And the verb e\u00edd\u014d <\/em>meant \u201cto see\u201d and \u201cto grasp.\u201d Related to this verb, the noun id\u00e9\u0101<\/em> denoted both a spiritual idea and a form in the material world. For example, when Plato (428\u2013348 BC) spoke of a dodecahedron, he saw not only the form but also the idea through the form. At that time, seeing and comprehending were one and the same. Over time, certain human capacities became weaker. The Greek verb e\u00edd\u014d<\/em>, which became vide\u014d<\/em> in Latin, lost its spiritual dimension and only expressed the sensible aspect of seeing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The concept of \u201cconsciousness\u201d (s\u016dne\u00edd\u0113s\u012ds<\/em>) was coined by Greek philosophers in Asia Minor around 700 BC. It remained limited to philosophy until Paul used it to talk about God. For the first time in the history of humanity, a human being approached the spiritual world through his consciousness, through his individual consciousness! Two thousand years later, this bold invention has still not really arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s assumed that Paul wrote his letters in the years 50 to 67, before Mark, Luke, Matthew, and John had written their gospels. He was, therefore, the first Christian author, which is usually forgotten. The question, therefore, arises: Where did Paul get his inspiration if he hadn\u2019t read the Gospels, which didn\u2019t exist yet, and since he hadn\u2019t been an eyewitness to Jesus Christ? The answer lies in one word: s\u016dne\u00edd\u0113s\u012ds<\/em>, consciousness! On the road to Damascus, during his suprasensible encounter with Christ, Paul had the shattering experience of absolute consciousness. From that moment on, he spared no effort to incorporate the philosophical concept of consciousness into a completely new approach to the divine world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Paul, there is no opposition between science and religion. If science and religion are associated with the two faculties of knowledge and belief, which are regarded as opposites, does not the opposition stem from the way in which knowledge and belief are understood? And what place does consciousness occupy in this context? Steiner laid down a similarly surprising and Pauline principle: \u201cIn religious feeling one acquires the consciousness of the spirit, and in the science of the spirit one acquires the knowledge of the spirit.\u201d<\/span>6<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The apostles Peter and Paul with the Christ monogram Chi-Rho, engraving in the Hippolytus Catacomb in Rome, 4th century.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Law of the Heart<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Decalogue\u2014ten dictums of Yahweh handed down by Moses\u2014appeared at a time when human beings did not yet have the full possibility of grasping themselves in their \u2018I.\u2019 The event of Golgotha changed this in that the archetype of consciousness\u2014the \u201cI am,\u201d known as \u201cChrist\u201d\u2014became accessible to every human being. This did not escape Paul: \u201cWhen pagans, who do not possess the Law, do instinctively what the Law requires, these, though not having the Law, are themselves the Law. They show that what the Law requires is written on their hearts, to which their own conscience also bears witness; and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them\u201d (Romans 2:14\u201315, rev. by author).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With an unrelenting logic, Paul was essentially saying: when someone adopts a behavior of their own accord, without being prompted to do so from the outside, this shows that \u201csomething\u201d is at work within them. Furthermore, when they are conscious of what is \u201cworking in them,\u201d then they no longer need the Law. Paul presented these ideas to the teachers of the Law! Since he had been a fanatical Pharisee, he knew exactly what the Law was and how dangerous it was for anyone who dared to contradict it.<\/span>7<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Hadn\u2019t he ordered the stoning of Stephen?<\/span>8<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Only his consciousness gave him the courage in the Jewish environment to dare to suggest giving up the Law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Paul, the Hebrew law aimed to develop the individual self, for which it was a kind of pedagogue. Paid\u0103g\u014dg\u00f3s<\/em> literally meant \u201cthe one who guides the child,\u201d as long as the child is not able to guide himself. This is why Paul writes: \u201cNow before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the Law until faith would be revealed. Therefore, the Law was our pedagogue (paidag\u014dg\u00f2s<\/em>) until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But faith having come, we are no longer under the dependence of the Law\u201d (Galatians 3:23\u201325, rev. by the author). Paradoxically, the meanderings of evolution led to the great Christian churches also adopting the attitude of a pedagogue and preserving the law. But St. Paul, by asserting that everyone who comes to his own self is himself the law, was already anticipating a philosophy of freedom, an ethical individualism, which was later formulated by the German idealists and then by Steiner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Necessity of Heresies<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Paul, like anthroposophy, placed great emphasis on the social significance of his teaching. As the first architect of Christianity, he founded communities, which he called ekkl\u0113s\u00eda<\/em>.<\/span>9<\/sup><\/a><\/span> This concept became eccl\u0113sia<\/em> in Latin, \u00e9glise<\/em> (church) in French, [and ecclesiastic<\/em> in English]. Naturally, there was no church in Paul\u2019s time, neither Catholic, Protestant, nor Orthodox! It is unfortunate that ekkl\u0113s\u00eda<\/em> has been translated as \u201cchurch,\u201d as this word brings certain modern connotations. What was the meaning of ekkl\u0113s\u00eda<\/em> in Paul\u2019s time? The word, which was formed from the prefix ek-<\/em> and the noun kl\u0113sis<\/em>, indicated an \u201cassembly summoned together.\u201d The concept, which was adopted by various religious denominations, originally had a universal meaning. Spectators who gathered in a hall to listen to a concert that had been announced also formed an ekkl\u0113s\u00eda<\/em>. In addition, some languages also use the word \u00e9glise<\/em> (church) for the walls within which a religious community gathers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two words would be appropriate to translate ekkl\u0113s\u00eda<\/em> without denominational connotation. \u201cCommunity\u201d (Lat. comm\u016bnit\u0101s<\/em>) can be used, which expresses a shared (com-<\/em>) responsibility (m\u016bnis<\/em>). One can also translate ekkl\u0113s\u00eda<\/em> as \u201cassembly,\u201d based on the Indo-European root *sem-<\/em>, \u201ctogether; one\u201d expressing identity; also, in connection with Shem, the son of Noah, who was to \u201cbear the name.\u201d The Semitic peoples, the heirs of Shem, had to especially develop the \u2018I\u2019, the name. The translation to \u201cassembly\u201d points to a plurality of individuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was Paul uncompromising in his doctrine, as is often claimed? His letter to the Corinthians casts doubt upon this: \u201cFor, to begin with, when you come together as an assembly, I hear that there are divisions (skh\u012d\u0301sma<\/em>) among you; and to some extent I believe it. Indeed, there have to be free choices (ha\u00edres\u012ds<\/em>) among you, for only so will it become clear who among you are genuine\u201d (1 Corinthians 11:18\u201319, rev. by author). Paul reminded the Corinthians that it was not astonishing that there should be discord, skh\u012d\u0301sm\u0103<\/em>, schisms, in an assembly of human beings, since it was essential for him that everyone should have a free choice, an ha\u00edres\u012ds<\/em>. It is a linguistic irony that the word ha\u00edres\u012ds<\/em>, transliterated into \u201cheresy,\u201d became, in the eyes of the Church, a vice to be eradicated. The fight against heresy is an attack on freedom of choice.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Oldest known depiction of St. Paul, 2nd half of the 3rd century, discovered in 2009 in the Tecla catacombs not far from the Basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura in Rome.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The Pedagogy of Spiritual Science<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Paul\u2019s social concern was based on pedagogical qualities: \u201cThose who speak in tongues build themselves up, but those who prophesy build up the community (ekkl\u0113s\u00eda<\/em>). Now, I would like all of you to speak in tongues but even more to prophesy. One who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the community may be built up. Now, brothers and sisters, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I speak to you in some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching?\u201d (1 Corinthians 14:4\u20136, rev. by author).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What did he mean by oikodom\u0113<\/em> (edification)? The Greeks considered the house (o\u0129kos<\/em>) to be the basic spatial cell of human beings. For this reason, many words are constructed from o\u0129kos<\/em>, such as ecology, economy, diocese, metic (m\u00e9to\u0129kos<\/em>), etc. The house was the unit of life, just as gr\u00e1mma<\/em> was the unit of communication. Therefore, edification, oikodom\u0113<\/em>, the building of a house, was a highly significant concept for Paul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Paul calls \u201cspeaking in tongues\u201d means speaking in a language that is considered heavenly or inspired but is unknown or incomprehensible to the listeners. However, it was important to him that the speech was edifying. \u0102\u0313pok\u1eafl\u016dps\u012dsis<\/em> is composed of the prefix apo-<\/em> (concept of eviction) and k\u1eafl\u016dx<\/em> (calyx).<\/span>10<\/sup><\/a><\/span> The original meaning of \u201capocalypse\u201d was unveiling or revelation, i.e. the removal of a veil that conceals something. Paul wanted spiritual truth to be revealed, thereby making it useful for the assembly. Speech, he added, should bring gn\u014d\u0303s\u012ds<\/em> (knowledge as defined above, not as a quantity of something known), as well as \u201cprophecy\u201d and \u201cteaching.\u201d While today, a prophecy (proph\u0113te\u00ed\u0101<\/em>) has a rather pejorative, divinatory undertone, it had a very different meaning for Paul. The verb proph\u0113te\u00fa\u014d<\/em>, expressing one\u2019s thoughts through words (verb ph\u0113m\u00ed<\/em>) in advance (pro-<\/em>), meant \u201cto interpret the divine word,\u201d i.e., to explain spiritual realities that would otherwise remain inaccessible to ordinary mortals. Paul thus attributed these four basic properties to all edifying speech: \u0103\u0313pok\u1eafl\u016dps\u012dsis<\/em> (unveiling), gn\u014d\u0303s\u012ds<\/em> (knowledge), proph\u0113te\u00ed\u0101<\/em> (prophecy), d\u012dd\u0103kh\u1e17<\/em> (teaching). He believed it was better to remain silent than to speak without these four qualities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steiner had a similar pedagogical concern: \u201cIt is uncomfortable for people to admit that the spiritual should really be seen and understood. . . . Now, all spiritual science consists in the fact that the mystery is unveiled, that the mystery really steps out before the world.\u201d<\/span>11<\/sup><\/a><\/span> He uses the verb \u201cunveil\u201d (enth\u00fcllen<\/em>) here in the sense that Paul and John used it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the Whole of Humanity<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Neither Paul nor anthroposophy regard Christianity as a religious creed. The turning point of Golgotha is a fact common to all humanity, like the continental drift. It shouldn\u2019t be equated with the emergence of a new religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul announces to the Colossians that he is to reveal \u201cthe mystery hidden for eons and generations but now revealed to his saints. To them, God chose to make known how great among the pagans are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory\u201d (Colossians 1:26\u201328, rev. by author). The Mystery of Christ that was revealed to Paul made it possible for him to emphasize the universality of human nature. Transcending all denominational, social, and ethnic boundaries, he wrote to the Galatians: \u201cThere is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus\u201d (Galatians 3:28).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Echoing the Pauline message, Steiner also emphasized the universality and timelessness of Christ: \u201cThe true understanding of anyone who professes the Christ rests on the fact that he becomes conscious that the Christ impulse is not limited to one part of the Earth\u2014this would be an error. The reality is that since the Mystery of Golgotha, what Paul already said for the areas for which he had to speak, is really true. Paul proclaimed: Christ died for the pagans too. But, humanity must understand that Christ came, not for a particular people, for a particular, limited time, but for the entire population of the Earth, for all.\u201d<\/span>12<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

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Painting of St. Paul, end of the 5th century, in the Grotto of St. Paul in Ephesus.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Freedom Nourishes the Community<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow, before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the Law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the Law was our pedagogue (paidag\u014dg\u00f2s<\/em>) until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a pedagogue\u201d (Galatians 3:23\u201325, rev. by author). Paul made consciousness\u2014that is, Christ\u2014the best possible way to freedom: \u201cFor freedom, Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery\u201d (Galatians 5:1).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite appearances, \u201cfreed for freedom\u201d is not a pleonasm. Freeing oneself from the familiar is a good thing, but not an end in itself. It\u2019s now fashionable to practice \u201cletting go\u201d in order to become free\u2014but to what end? Paul answered this question: to become free for the sake of freedom! What is freedom? Proceeding from his direct view of Christ, Paul describes freedom in a way that was revolutionary for his time: \u201cFor though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God\u2019s law but am under Christ\u2019s law) so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.\u201d (1 Corinthians 9:19\u201323)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Far from being a perverse, manipulative hypocrite, as he is often portrayed, Paul, like a forerunner, developed what Steiner later called the \u201csense of the \u2018I\u2019 of the other,\u201d that is, an intimate understanding of otherness. Paul was far enough advanced along the path to the higher \u2018I\u2019 that he was able to perceive the\u2014potential\u2014\u2018I\u2019 of those with whom he spoke; he was animated by a strong power of compassion. Freedom is still misunderstood in this Pauline sense today. Inseparably linked to the Christian impulse, freedom is at the heart of anthroposophy, which Steiner formulated as follows: \u201cA moral misunderstanding, a clash is impossible with morally free human beings. . . . But, in the midst of coercive order, human beings, free spirits, rise up and find themselves in the mess of custom, legal compulsion, religious practice, and so on. . . . Nature makes of human beings merely natural beings; society makes them law-abiding beings; only they, themselves, can make themselves a free being.\u201d<\/span>13<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To the Ephesians, Paul formulated with extraordinarily simplicity the context within which each individual can embed his or her work: \u201cThe pagans (nations) have become co-heirs, co-embodied, and co-participants in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel\u201d (Ephesians 3:6, rev. by the author). This trilogy of togetherness contains a true temporal mystery. Sunkl\u0113ron\u00f3mos<\/em> (co-heirs) means that human beings are united by inheritance, that is, by a common past. S\u00fass\u014dmos<\/em> (co-embodied) says that human beings participate in a single body, in this case, the body of Christ as a social body. Therefore, they are united in the present. Summ\u00e9tokhos<\/em> (co-participants) says that human beings are united by their deeds (met\u00e9kh\u014d<\/em>, to participate in), which lead them into the future. In short, human beings are united through the past, the present, and the future in Christ, that is, in consciousness. Steiner [wrote in the days following on from] the Christmas Conference in 1923 with a similar emphasis as Paul about the importance of individual work in the common work: \u201c[The Anthroposophical Society] lives only through what is worked within it.\u201d<\/span>14<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Likewise, the whole of humanity has the same origin in the past, is united in a present consciousness, and produces itself in the future through the collaboration of all human individuals who \u201cparticipate in\u201d this edification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through this sketch of Paul\u2019s letters, we have glimpsed how his thinking actually forms an original philosophy of freedom for all humanity. We can then understand why Rudolf Steiner regarded Paul\u2019s thinking as the basis of anthroposophy\u2019s epistemology: \u201cTo place epistemology on a Pauline basis was the task of my two writings Truth and Knowledge<\/em> and The Philosophy of Freedom<\/em>. These two books place themselves within the great achievement of the Pauline comprehension of the human being in the western lands of the world.\u201d<\/span>15<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Despite the two millennia that separate us from Paul, the first of the Christian authors, his spiritual strength can inspire, enlighten, and stimulate us in our individual search.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

All New Testament quotations are from The New Oxford Annotated Bible<\/em> [NOAB], revised 4th ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001); revised by the author as noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translation (from German to English) <\/strong>Joshua Kelberman
Translation (original French to German)<\/strong> Louis Def\u00e8che
English translation revised by the author<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The thinking of Paul of Tarsus has come down to us in his letters written in ancient Greek. To understand them in depth, one must go back to this original source. Olivier Coutris has done this, revealing the first philosophy of freedom in Christian history. This sophisticated philosophy of freedom, based on individualized thinking freed from conformism, leads to a consciousness of humanity that can transcend all affiliations and religions. \u201cDo not be conformed to this world, but be transformed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20890,"featured_media":60577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8786,8788],"tags":[11578,8798,11604],"class_list":["post-62684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christology","category-essay-en","tag-ausgabe-42-2024","tag-deepening","tag-english-issue-1-2-2025"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20890"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}