After Paul: The Apostle’s Legacy in Early Christianity by James W. Aageson (review)

Reviewed by: After Paul: The Apostle's Legacy in Early Christianity by James W. Aageson Patrick Gray james w. aageson, After Paul: The Apostle's Legacy in Early Christianity (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2023). Pp. xx + 279. 59. 99. To say that Paul was a figure of considerable influence in the first four centuries is to state an obvious truth. What were the contours of this influence, and how did it manifest itself in disparate contexts and in response to ever-changing theological challenges? A thick description of this process requires the kind of targeted analysis the author provides in this monograph. Aageson wants to distinguish Paul's "legacy" from the reception of particular texts and ideas or the exegetical techniques employed by his earliest interpreters. Sometimes he refers to this broader impact as "Pauline religion,. . . a framework of cultural symbols, texts, narratives, beliefs, and communities that were remembered, if not reinvented, over time" (p. 5). Each chapter begins with a point of entry from the canonical text, traces the development of a theme or motif, and concludes with a brief treatment of the particular transformations of the Pauline legacy attested in patristic writings. Irenaeus and Tertullian are the authors receiving most attention in the last section of each chapter, though one also finds Ignatius of Antioch and other Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Marcion, and apocryphal texts such as the Acts of Paul and Thecla. This schema makes it possible to trace continuities and discontinuities over time between the historical Paul and Pauline tradition as the former became a figure of remembrance in the latter. Aageson examines Paul's legacy under eight headings: (1) "Memory, Metamorphosis, End Page 388 and Christian Development" begins with the earliest collective memories of Paul, starting with Acts and the Pastoral Epistles. Perhaps it is more accurate to think of Paul's legacy as emerging first with the audiences for his missionary preaching and the authentic letters, but direct access to these sources is, naturally, limited. (2) "Meaning, Method, and Conflict" takes 1 Cor 1: 18–2: 16 as evidence that Paul is less interested in a specific doctrinal deviation than in the fact of factionalism itself, and that recent rhetorical approaches get closer to the heart of the matter than do attempted excavations of the Corinthians' theological orientation (e. g. , in an incipient Gnosticism). A. 's choice of this text makes sense given the polemical character of the earliest postbiblical writings, much of it involving Paul himself and often in the form of letters to churches (e. g. , Ignatius, 1 Clement). (3) "Authority and Control" understands the servant/slave language in Romans 6 to be less about status and property than about the exercise of control in social and ecclesiastical relationships. This linguistic strategy is a key to interpreting Paul's claims about submission to new forms of authority rather than freedom from authority per se. The relevance of this observation, for example, for institutional development and gender relations is evident across the many settings in which Paul's authority is invoked on both sides of various debates. In (4) "Life in the Empire, " A. shows that, when it comes to the question of resistance or accommodation to Roman imperial ideology, Paul shows varied responses. His treatment is a helpful corrective to the current tendency to see Paul as always and everywhere in unrelenting opposition to Rome. As Christians negotiated a constantly shifting landscape in the empire prior to Constantine, Pauline impulses can be detected especially in discourses related to martyrdom and persecution. In (5) "Self-Definition and Contention, " A. looks at Abraham, Israel, and the gentiles in several texts—above all, Romans 9–11—and finds that second-century apologists take Pauline thought in a supersessionist direction that is hard to square with the apostle's motivating concerns. (6) "Sexuality, Marriage, and Asceticism" documents the ways in which 1 Corinthians 7 and, to a lesser extent, 1 Thessalonians 4 informed the widespread conviction that celibacy was a calling superior to marriage. (7) "Paul's Legacy in Place" highlights the distinctive accents lent to Paul's legacy when specific locales are taken into account. Philippi, Rome, and Corinth are the focus here. Whereas. . .