Jesus Have I Loved, but Paul?: A Narrative Approach to the Problem of Pauline Christianity

by J.R. Daniel Kirk

"Students of the Bible are often drawn to Jesus's message and ministry, but they are not always as positively inclined toward Paul. In this volume, Pauline scholar J.R. Daniel Kirk offers a fresh and timely engagement of the debated relationship between Paul's writings and the portrait of Jesus contained in the Gospels. He integrates the messages of Jesus and Paul both with one another and with the Old Testament, demonstrating the continuity that exists between these two foundational figures. After laying out the narrative contours of the Christian life, Kirk provides fresh perspective on challenging issues facing the contemporary world, from environmental concerns to social justice to homosexuality"--From publisher description

Genres: Theology, Religion, Biblical Studies, Nonfiction, New Testament, Christian, Faith

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

J. R. Daniel Kirk (PhD, Duke University) is assistant professor of New Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary’s Northern California campus in Menlo Park, California. He is the author of Unlocking Romans: Resurrection and the Justification of God as well as numerous articles.

Reviews

[Lee Harmon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one gets off to a bit of a slow start, but finishes strong. With an enigmatic subject like Paul, and a provocative title like this one, I expected a more pointed discussion. It's only when we reach the midpoint that the really controversial topics emerge: women's role in the church, slavery, homosexuality, marriage and divorce, etc.

Kirk begins his book by confessing his early ambivalence toward Paul. Only after much study, and by recognizing that Paul's teachings and Jesus' teachings do steer toward one another, did he come to appreciate Paul's slant. This acceptance appears to have come at a cost: Kirk began to realize that not only did Paul tend toward Jesus in his teachings, but Jesus tended toward Paul!

For example, Jesus says we should not judge one another. But is that the whole story? Worry about the log in your own eye, and ignore the speck of dust in your neighbor's? Hardly. Jesus says get the log out of your eye so that you can see to help your brother get rid of his problem. If we condemn Paul for encouraging what looks like strict judgment of others (1 Cor. 5:12-13), we should remember Jesus' admonition to recognize others by their fruits and beware.

Paul may best be understood under the lens of Storied Theology. By telling the story of mankind, from Adam and Eve through Paul's day, he fits the Gentiles into the cosmic plan of God. He brings non-Jews into the fold, makes them feel like they belong, and defines their role as full participants.

Kirk writes as a studied believer, meaning his perspective is most definitely that of a practicing Christian, yet he's been around the block long enough to realize that every question about the Bible has a dozen scholarly answers ... half of them legitimate. For example, Kirk acknowledges that many of the Pauline letters may be pseudonymous, and he focuses more intently on the universally recognized authentic letters, yet he doesn't press the issue.

Kirk doesn't sit on the fence when it comes to interpreting the words of the Bible, though. Paul doesn't pull punches, and neither does Kirk. Still, this is a respectful and thought-provoking book.

[Robert D. Cornwall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many times Christians choose between Jesus and Paul, with many liberals choosing Jesus over the more regressive Paul. Some have tried to rehabilitate Paul by distinguishing between the truly Pauline and the deutero-Pauline letters.

Daniel Kirk doesn't so much try to rehabilitate Paul as connect his story with that of Jesus. Contexts are different,but they're largely on the same page. Kirk uses the idea of narrative to understand Paul, seeing Paul attempting to write the Gentiles into the story of God's people through their adherence to the person of Jesus.

As he does this, he takes us into an exploration of issues facing the church today including women, social justice, and sexuality. His chapter on homosexuality won't satisfy many traditionalists nor many progressives, but he offers a provocative vision for full inclusion of gays and lesbians into the life of the church.

Kirk is an evangelical, teaching at my alma mater. His conversation partners are generally the more moderate evangelicals such as Tom Wright, Richard Hays, and Scot McKnight. It's a good book, well worth reading!!

[James Chappell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Right up until and including the chapter on social justice, it was fantastic, but the last two chapters on sex and homosexuality lost sight of the goal of making the trajectories of Paul and Jesus meet. Yes, they discussed Paul and Jesus to some extent, but the priority of reconciling the two seemed to be put aside in making homosexuality fit with the Christian narrative. That's not to say a good argument was not put forward. It was. But I hear convincing sounding arguments from both liberals and conservatives, and in the end I am happily agnostic on the issue, just wanting to treat everyone according to Jesus' golden rule. Overall, though, the book was powerful and a welcome and brave step away from conservative thought.

[Theron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good book by J.R. Daniel Kirk. I digress, the first book I put down by him was "Unlocking Romans," which so far in my life has been the most illuminating book on Romans.

He tackles many questions in this book: what's the deal with Jesus and Paul, what is the gospel, what is theology, what is ethics and spirituality? Given that he's taken on so many topics he can't do justice to all of them. He offers sketches rather than dogmatic conclusions. This is a good thing. If his narrative framework were able to answer everything with black and white precision he'd be no different than the dogmatist and their systems!

I'd recommend this book to evangelicals wrestling within that corner or room (to use C.S. Lewis' analogy) of Christendom as well as more liberal leaning Christians. This is a both/and book reaching out to both sides of the Christian spectrum.

[Joel Wentz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very lucid guide through the process of putting Paul and Jesus into the broader biblical narrative of Israel and world-wide redemption. Kirk has a sensitive eye for the specific cultural issues of Western-American-Christianity, and he does wonderful job of keeping everything in tension. The chapters on community and inclusivity (particularly the connection to the doctrine of justification) are very illuminating, and I was quite impressed with his even-handed discussion of sex, sexuality and LGBT questions in scripture. This one is going on my reference shelf, as I will certainly be re-reading several of these chapters in the future. Definitely recommended.

[Matt Crawford]

The book positions itself as a question of either the cooperation or opposition between Jesus and Paul. For the most part of the book, it shows the continuity of The Anointed and The Apostle. There are some series problems. Specifically with his approach to egalitarianism. Also, his presentation on homosexuality is skewed. I like where he ends up but not how he gets there. There is so much that is left out that I cannot recommend it as a good evaluation of Paul. It does however a good job of letting you know about the current debates on the subject.

[Melisa Blankenship · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow...I'm not sure how to sum up this book. I think Daniel Kirk is brilliant. The overview is that he connects the dots between Jesus and Paul by looking at their cultural context and audience and interprets how they have cohesive messages. He talks about the role of our Christian brothers and sisters in our Christian formation, He talks about social justice and how it’s more than a progressive stance but an opportunity to spread the grace of God toward others. This isn't a zero sum game...when we show the love and grace of God, the love and grace of God grows and benefits us all.
I questioned whether to mention this but if someone reads this book because of my recommendation, I feel I need to provide this caveat: this book was published in 2011. He has a chapter on homosexuality, in which he takes a conservative to moderate "pastoral accommodation" stance and he includes a call for love. I believe that this chapter no longer accurately reflects his views, but for this time in evangelicalism it's a progressive stance. He shows his own humility on the last page of this book when he writes, "this book is a piece of my own theological journey, my own story of narrating Jesus and Paul for the time and place in which I find myself."
This book doesn't accurately reflect all of my current views, but it has a lot of critical analysis and a call to gracious loving that I do believe in. It's also brilliantly written.

[Ricki · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only was able to get though the first half of the book before it had to go back to the library, but it's enough to write a review.

The author does a good job of connecting Paul and Jesus and speaking on issues like the roles and rights of women. He shows a great depth of research and I agree with all of his conclusions so far. I have high interest in the subject matter, but honestly this book was a slog. The language was too dry and scholarly for me. (I say that as an editor with a master's degree in English—it's not that it was difficult for me to read, but that it didn't hold my interest.)

[Geoff Glenister · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm sorry to say that I was a bit disappointed in this, as I expected more based on what I'd heard. But there were some grave omissions, in my opinion, and it seemed to me that the author was catering to a group of people who are living in denial of modern scholarship. To be more specific:

- There was really not much but a passing mention of the fact that the vast majority of scholarship accepts that the pastoral epistles were not written by Paul and that a majority accepts that Colossians, Ephesians, and 2 Thessalonians were also not written by Paul (these were, it is said, pseudepigraphy). Rather, this author often quotes from some of these sources and seems to take for granted that they were written by Paul. This is a grave disappointment to me. I'd highly recommend, as an alternative to this book, The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church’s Conservative Icon.
- The author makes a rather unconvincing argument for a sort of strange "universalism" that treats everyone the same way even though one takes for granted that not all will be saved. He seems to argue against any other forms of universalism without really being familiar with (or at least not discussing) their own arguments for their position, and also seems to accept a common mistaken view that all universalisms are a loosey goosey "anything goes" sort of non-morality that doesn't stand up against abuse.
- The chapter on Homosexuality makes a less than convincing argument that doesn't even mention that in Paul's context, it was taken for granted that all forms of homosexuality were abusive in that the only homosexuality people saw in this time were in the forms of pederasty and prostitution. Of course they saw homosexuality as immoral if they took it for granted that there was no such a thing as consensual monogamous relationships between two healthy adult individuals of the same sex. I really would have liked to see him discuss this a bit and was very disappointed that he didn't. He also seemed to take it for granted that anyone who might be called "liberal" not only accepted homosexuality but also would fall under the "free love morality" of the seventies where monogamy wasn't valued.

[Gerardo Garcia Palacios · Rating 5 out of 5]

New perspectives on Jesus’ gopel

Dr. Kirk’s book helps to open our minds to think in a new way about the Good News of Jesus from a Pauline point of view.

[Kris L · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ahistorical Zionist apologism. Not for anyone interested in the Paul of Tarsus who actually lived.

[Charlene Mathe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not expect the clarity and fresh thinking in this brief book. I love the engaging tone of the book -- thoughtful, but not ponderous; sober, yet upbeat; personal, and sparkling. The author proposes that "Genesis 1-3 creates the narrative tensions that drive the remainder of the biblical story ... As the story unfolds, Abraham, and later Israel, are called to play the role God had originally given to Adam" (p.35). I happen to be reading this just as I heard N. T. Wright interviewed on his new book, "How God Became King." I see quite a bit of overlap in these two books as they rethink the gospel narratives and the message of "the Kingdom of God." The second half of J. R. Daniel Kirk's book applies the Kingdom message to contemporary issues such as social justice and homosexuality. I thought his chapter on homosexuality was very well thought through. It would do everyone good to read it.

[Haley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book exceeded my expectations and I learned a lot from it. If you're interested in the intersection of Jesus and Paul and the perceived incongruities therein, this book provides a great analysis and synthesis of the two. I read the book mainly because I was told that Kirk's chapter on homosexuality provided a new-ish (2011) presentation of the 'traditional' view on the subject. I'm not sure his exegetical or ethical approach is anything new, but there was something about that chapter that was very rare to find: Kirk spends at least 4 or 5 pages exploring what it might take for him (and the church) to reconsider this issue and come to a new conclusion. This kind of openness from a person who holds a 'traditional' view is extremely uncommon in my experience. I already respected Kirk based on the rest of the book, but his generosity and humility in that chapter kicked it up a notch.

[Sarah Schulz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read more of J.R. Daniel Kirk's blog posts than I have his books, and in fact, it was one of his blog posts which alerted me to this volume. As a dabbler in theology who is a fan of both the Jesus in the Gospels and of Paul in his letters, I've always been puzzled by those who set them against each other, and I was intrigued to see Kirk take this on.

It's a great book for that--comparing theology in the Gospels and theology in the epistles--and also a solid close reading of many New Testament texts. Anyone who is trying to get a deeper understanding might find gold nuggets here, even if they disagree with some of Kirk's smaller conclusions (as I did).

But my favorite part is how Kirk applies the narrative approach. If you are a storyteller or you find a narrative framing helpful in other approaches to theology, I highly recommend this book.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of this book was helpful for me in reframing Paul and not making me think he sucks so bad. The chapter on homosexuality was enough to bring it down two full stars. In that chapter and also the one on universalism and the one on women, and perhaps elsewhere, Kirk ends up in a place I like and agree with but along the way says some terrible things. Now someone needs to write "Paul Have I Loved, but Kirk?" If I excise those chapters I may keep it for future reference when someone comes to me badtalking Paul.

[Rob Culp · Rating 3 out of 5]

It seemed to take a long time to get into what it was supposed to be about, which I suppose is necessary to get everyone on the same page, but the first eighty pages or so didn't leave me with much. That said, I enjoyed the book and it did bring up some interesting points. It's arguments were all well-founded in scripture, which I appreciated greatly as I was a bit suspicious of this "Narrative Approach" business.

[Jonny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved Kirk's work with Paul and Jesus. I found it to be agreeable and enlightening. Topics that range from justice, judgement, women, sex, and sexual identity make this text relevant for our day and age.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good book by a promising young author. A great application of narrative theology to the consideration of some of the challenges presented by Paul. I'd like to give it 4.5 stars but alas ... A very helpful book if your giving thought to Paul.

[Nicholas Quient · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great introduction to narrative theology. His sections are strong.