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Pauline Theology: Ministry and Society
The book should provide a lively counterpoint to both the standard liberal and conservative treatments in courses on Paul's view of ministry. - Theology Today Ellis' judicious treatment and penetrating analysis of the relevant biblical material will force many of us...to think more precisely about the concept of ministry in Paul's writings, how ministry manifested itself in the churches of his day, and what are its implications for us today. - Westminster Theological Journal Ellis gives a sound critique of liberation theology and sociopolitical action as ministry. He gives a balanced view of the gifts and the fruit of the Spirit and, on biblical grounds, he defends the ordination of single and, with qualifications, married women. Challenging, but meant for the intelligent church member. -Librarian's World It's a gem. It is a delightful summary in popular form of themes that Ellis has been at work on throughout his years of productive scholarship. It is 'copiously footnoted...with concise bibliographies on the points at hand...Hence, this short book becomes encyclopedic. - Calvin Theological Journal A splendid tour de force in the best sense. - James G. D. Dunn These essays...represent in many respects a valuable corrective to much of what passes for biblical theology in our times. - Paul J. Achtemeier
182 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1989
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July 28, 2011E. Earle Ellis is the author of numerous works on New Testament studies and is research professor of theology emeritus at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. He attended several universities in the United States in Europe, including the University of Edinburgh, where he earned a Ph.D. in 1955. He has lectured in farther reaches, including Africa and Australia.
The present volume is a collection of some of those lectures, all given on the theme of Paul’s theology of ministry (ix-x). The fives sections do not represent a unified thesis; rather, Ellis describes the sections as treating five aspects of Paul’s theology of ministry (ix). For this reason, one reviewer described the book as “a disjointed series of lectures.” That critique is overly harsh considering Ellis’s purpose does not seem to have been to present a unitary thesis and the five lectures do have a conjunction on account of their shared theme–Paul’s ministerial theology.
The first of these five sections considered Paul’s usage of the term for ministry– diakoniva and its cognates. Ellis’s conclusion was that Paul’s usage places ministry in the context of being modeled after Jesus’ own ministry and empowered by the gifting of the Holy Spirit (3-4). The result of this is that ministry, according to Ellis’s understanding of Paul, “is a present manifestation of the coming kingdom of God” (7). Thus ministry is the working of the church in the present age what will be done in God’s kingdom.
Ellis further found in Paul’s usage the dimension in which ministry is done. He found that ministry is “limited to the persons and the community [the church] where that activity [of the Spirit] takes place” (7). More succinctly stated, ministry is “of the body [of Christ], for the body, and by the body” (14). This conclusion led Ellis to enquire as to whether service rendered to those “in Adam” is properly termed, “ministry,” according to the Pauline sense of the word. Countering the social gospel and liberation theologies’ insistence on identifying social activism and progressivism as the center of Christian ministry, Ellis claimed that such work, though an obligation for the church under the ethical commandment to love its neighbors, must not be confused for ministry (23).
The second section considers the Spirit’s relationship to the ministry. Namely, this relationship is outlined in the Spirit’s role, function and gifts to the ministry. The function, Ellis said, of the Spirit in ministry is identified by the gifts of the Spirit. Ellis then proceeded to enumerate Paul’s listings of the gifts and discussed their relationship to the fruit of the Spirit (34). Central to the operation of the gifts is love (52).
The third section regarded the role of women in the ministry, an oft-debated subject in the church in light of the twentieth-century women’s rights movement. Ellis recognized the applicability of Paul’s writings in such a context, also recognizing the distinction of women’s roles in the church as distinct from the roles they may play within society in general (54). Ellis claimed that Paul limits the subordinate role to the present age, for equal roles will be enjoyed by both sexes in the eschaton (56-57). For the present, Ellis laid out Paul’s teaching that the subordinate role is not demeaning. He did this by demonstrating the analogy of the subordinate role of women with the same such role as held by Christ in relation to God and the church to Christ. If Jesus were to assume such a role, then it must not be dishonorable.
The fourth lecture examined order in the Pauline churches. Responding to those who posited that the primitive church focused on the spontaneous use of charisms and that ecclesiastical order came about in the second century, Ellis claimed that that opinion was far too strong an antithesis to organizational overdevelopment in those critics’ day (88-89). In order to provide balance, Ellis said that order within the church was developed alongside the spontaneous use of gifts, if not in some ways prior to the coming of the Spirit and the accompanying gifts (90-92).
The last lecture examined the perception of early Christian meetings and social clubs as similar within Greco-Roman society. Both the early church and the synagogues out of which it often came found themselves likened to other religious organizations (130-132). Referring to themes more intensely developed in the first lecture, Ellis looked at the implications of this club identification on the role of ministry insofar as ministry occurs within the church but also how a Christian ethic would have an effect on general society (156-157).
Ellis’s investigation in the first lecture into the nature of the Pauline concept of ministry found an appropriate starting point in its examination of the use of diakoniva and its cognates in the Pauline corpus. His conclusion that social work is not truly a Pauline understanding of ministry is a welcome rectification of the tendency to substitute social work for ministry and to lose focus on ministry as a means for building up the body of Christ. His reminder that social work is still an ethical obligation helps keep the balance, lest any one take Ellis’s conclusion as an excuse to abandon concern for the needs of those “in Adam.”
One reviewer, however, saw Ellis’s conclusion as too strong a corrective against the mindset of salvation by sociopolitical action. That reviewer apparently started with a more contemporary definition of ministry, which extends the range of ministry “beyond the edification of the church,” by stating, “ministry should not be limited to activity within the church.” It must be remembered, though, that Ellis’s starting point was not the error of the social gospel or liberation theology and thus to react against it. Ellis’s starting point was exegetically examining Paul’s understanding of ministry and only then to compare this understanding with the sociopolitical model of ministry.
Ellis’s discussion of the role of women is to be commended for its biblical basis. Rather than starting from contemporary attitudes and trying to read them back into Paul’s writing, Ellis let Paul’s words speak for themselves. Ellis’s primary motive was not to show the incongruence of the Pauline emphasis as incompatible with contemporary attitudes or to prescribe the Pauline model. Ellis fairly presented a mere description of Paul’s teaching on the subject.
The discussion is not fully rounded, however, on the point of Phoebe. Ellis understood that Phoebe in Romans 16:1 is listed in the office of deacon by Paul’s referring to her as a diakonoV of the church (65). It must be questioned whether diakonoV here means that Phoebe merely served the church or if she held the office of deacon, remembering that the name for the office was derived from its primary purpose of service as seen in Acts 6. Considering that Romans was composed during the first half of Paul’s letter writing career, it is possible that his terminology was not consistent to the point that diakonoV always referred to the office of deacon and not merely the character of servanthood. Additionally, the context provides no aid in determining more precisely the meaning of diakonoV in that passage. So, it cannot be said with as much certainty as Ellis gave Phoebe’s title in a later argument (76). That argument, though, was only minor and the lack of Paul’s reference being “explicit” does not damage Ellis’s larger conclusions.
Initially, the thesis that early Christianity was similar to clubs is unsettling, for such a claim, at least on the service, removes the distinctions of the community of faith from mere social gatherings. Ellis began to make his position more comfortable by noting that the clubs covered a wide range of groups, from trade guilds and social institutions to religious and professional organizations (126). The synagogue system acted similarly and Ellis’ emphasis was that churches might have shared an affinity with the clubs, yet the church structure “arose from uniquely Christian experiences” (147). Ellis further warned against the error of equating the church as a social process (144-145), and he even refers to Paul’s rebuke of the Corinthian church for handling itself as though it were a club (138). Ellis’s approach seems to have presented the church as having been perceived by outsiders as a religious club and the church utilized that position, later beginning to identify themselves as such a club (145, 146, 147).
Additionally, Ellis was constantly sure to bring the study to bear on contemporary debates, whether on liberation theology, feminism, or glossolalia. His work in those areas provides exegetical material than can inform further debate. One debate, however, had been long silent before Ellis put a new voice into it. According the references he provided on the matter, the debate on the tension between spontaneous exercising of gifts and orderliness in the early church was decades old and was at the time of the original publication of this work, 1989, only being treated by forensic summaries (88n). His revival of the debate acts to bring balance, as noted above, to a view that Ellis perceived to be an overreaction.
Overall, the work displays a comprehensive knowledge of the literature in the discussion by its copious footnoting. While Ellis is apparently well informed on the scholarly opinions, he does not allow this take precedence over his own thorough exegetical practice on which he bases his claims. The biblical foundation on which Ellis builds is supplemented by archaeological research and dialogue with documents from the Pauline era. This allows Ellis to ably converse with other scholars on Pauline definitions and functions of ministry.
The first of these five sections is quickly applicable to ministry in that it defines the task. Ellis’s consideration that ministry is an activity wholly within the body of Christ focuses the activities of the minister. While sociopolitical action might be required by Christian ethics, it is no replacement for ministry. Ministers can thus benefit by understanding the scope and realm of their task. This is especially needed today when younger congregations seem to have a tendency toward a renewed involvement in such action.
Ellis’s section on the Spirit’s involvement in the ministry can be helpful for the teaching of the laity on the issue. In some churches, there can be confusion over the Spirit, but Ellis’s words can help pastors teach more precisely the Spirit’s involvement. The lecture also allows its readers, whether lay or clergy, to examine or re-examine their own spiritual gifts and how they might incorporate those gifts into fulfilling God’s purposes.
The fourth lecture can help the pastor organize the working of his congregation beyond simple ordering the services. Pastors can organize the life of their church in order to facilitate the use of the spiritual gifts by the church’s members within the church’s organized framework. That organization needs not necessarily fear having similarities with worldly organizations so long as the organization stems from the Christian experience.
Ellis has been very thoughtful regarding the Pauline conception of ministry and its relation to society. Ministers must also be likewise intentional in the manner in which they approach their ministry and their churches. In Ellis’s lectures, the minister will find both an example of the depth of consideration that must be put forward in the effort and a trove of material to instruct such an effort.
The present volume is a collection of some of those lectures, all given on the theme of Paul’s theology of ministry (ix-x). The fives sections do not represent a unified thesis; rather, Ellis describes the sections as treating five aspects of Paul’s theology of ministry (ix). For this reason, one reviewer described the book as “a disjointed series of lectures.” That critique is overly harsh considering Ellis’s purpose does not seem to have been to present a unitary thesis and the five lectures do have a conjunction on account of their shared theme–Paul’s ministerial theology.
The first of these five sections considered Paul’s usage of the term for ministry– diakoniva and its cognates. Ellis’s conclusion was that Paul’s usage places ministry in the context of being modeled after Jesus’ own ministry and empowered by the gifting of the Holy Spirit (3-4). The result of this is that ministry, according to Ellis’s understanding of Paul, “is a present manifestation of the coming kingdom of God” (7). Thus ministry is the working of the church in the present age what will be done in God’s kingdom.
Ellis further found in Paul’s usage the dimension in which ministry is done. He found that ministry is “limited to the persons and the community [the church] where that activity [of the Spirit] takes place” (7). More succinctly stated, ministry is “of the body [of Christ], for the body, and by the body” (14). This conclusion led Ellis to enquire as to whether service rendered to those “in Adam” is properly termed, “ministry,” according to the Pauline sense of the word. Countering the social gospel and liberation theologies’ insistence on identifying social activism and progressivism as the center of Christian ministry, Ellis claimed that such work, though an obligation for the church under the ethical commandment to love its neighbors, must not be confused for ministry (23).
The second section considers the Spirit’s relationship to the ministry. Namely, this relationship is outlined in the Spirit’s role, function and gifts to the ministry. The function, Ellis said, of the Spirit in ministry is identified by the gifts of the Spirit. Ellis then proceeded to enumerate Paul’s listings of the gifts and discussed their relationship to the fruit of the Spirit (34). Central to the operation of the gifts is love (52).
The third section regarded the role of women in the ministry, an oft-debated subject in the church in light of the twentieth-century women’s rights movement. Ellis recognized the applicability of Paul’s writings in such a context, also recognizing the distinction of women’s roles in the church as distinct from the roles they may play within society in general (54). Ellis claimed that Paul limits the subordinate role to the present age, for equal roles will be enjoyed by both sexes in the eschaton (56-57). For the present, Ellis laid out Paul’s teaching that the subordinate role is not demeaning. He did this by demonstrating the analogy of the subordinate role of women with the same such role as held by Christ in relation to God and the church to Christ. If Jesus were to assume such a role, then it must not be dishonorable.
The fourth lecture examined order in the Pauline churches. Responding to those who posited that the primitive church focused on the spontaneous use of charisms and that ecclesiastical order came about in the second century, Ellis claimed that that opinion was far too strong an antithesis to organizational overdevelopment in those critics’ day (88-89). In order to provide balance, Ellis said that order within the church was developed alongside the spontaneous use of gifts, if not in some ways prior to the coming of the Spirit and the accompanying gifts (90-92).
The last lecture examined the perception of early Christian meetings and social clubs as similar within Greco-Roman society. Both the early church and the synagogues out of which it often came found themselves likened to other religious organizations (130-132). Referring to themes more intensely developed in the first lecture, Ellis looked at the implications of this club identification on the role of ministry insofar as ministry occurs within the church but also how a Christian ethic would have an effect on general society (156-157).
Ellis’s investigation in the first lecture into the nature of the Pauline concept of ministry found an appropriate starting point in its examination of the use of diakoniva and its cognates in the Pauline corpus. His conclusion that social work is not truly a Pauline understanding of ministry is a welcome rectification of the tendency to substitute social work for ministry and to lose focus on ministry as a means for building up the body of Christ. His reminder that social work is still an ethical obligation helps keep the balance, lest any one take Ellis’s conclusion as an excuse to abandon concern for the needs of those “in Adam.”
One reviewer, however, saw Ellis’s conclusion as too strong a corrective against the mindset of salvation by sociopolitical action. That reviewer apparently started with a more contemporary definition of ministry, which extends the range of ministry “beyond the edification of the church,” by stating, “ministry should not be limited to activity within the church.” It must be remembered, though, that Ellis’s starting point was not the error of the social gospel or liberation theology and thus to react against it. Ellis’s starting point was exegetically examining Paul’s understanding of ministry and only then to compare this understanding with the sociopolitical model of ministry.
Ellis’s discussion of the role of women is to be commended for its biblical basis. Rather than starting from contemporary attitudes and trying to read them back into Paul’s writing, Ellis let Paul’s words speak for themselves. Ellis’s primary motive was not to show the incongruence of the Pauline emphasis as incompatible with contemporary attitudes or to prescribe the Pauline model. Ellis fairly presented a mere description of Paul’s teaching on the subject.
The discussion is not fully rounded, however, on the point of Phoebe. Ellis understood that Phoebe in Romans 16:1 is listed in the office of deacon by Paul’s referring to her as a diakonoV of the church (65). It must be questioned whether diakonoV here means that Phoebe merely served the church or if she held the office of deacon, remembering that the name for the office was derived from its primary purpose of service as seen in Acts 6. Considering that Romans was composed during the first half of Paul’s letter writing career, it is possible that his terminology was not consistent to the point that diakonoV always referred to the office of deacon and not merely the character of servanthood. Additionally, the context provides no aid in determining more precisely the meaning of diakonoV in that passage. So, it cannot be said with as much certainty as Ellis gave Phoebe’s title in a later argument (76). That argument, though, was only minor and the lack of Paul’s reference being “explicit” does not damage Ellis’s larger conclusions.
Initially, the thesis that early Christianity was similar to clubs is unsettling, for such a claim, at least on the service, removes the distinctions of the community of faith from mere social gatherings. Ellis began to make his position more comfortable by noting that the clubs covered a wide range of groups, from trade guilds and social institutions to religious and professional organizations (126). The synagogue system acted similarly and Ellis’ emphasis was that churches might have shared an affinity with the clubs, yet the church structure “arose from uniquely Christian experiences” (147). Ellis further warned against the error of equating the church as a social process (144-145), and he even refers to Paul’s rebuke of the Corinthian church for handling itself as though it were a club (138). Ellis’s approach seems to have presented the church as having been perceived by outsiders as a religious club and the church utilized that position, later beginning to identify themselves as such a club (145, 146, 147).
Additionally, Ellis was constantly sure to bring the study to bear on contemporary debates, whether on liberation theology, feminism, or glossolalia. His work in those areas provides exegetical material than can inform further debate. One debate, however, had been long silent before Ellis put a new voice into it. According the references he provided on the matter, the debate on the tension between spontaneous exercising of gifts and orderliness in the early church was decades old and was at the time of the original publication of this work, 1989, only being treated by forensic summaries (88n). His revival of the debate acts to bring balance, as noted above, to a view that Ellis perceived to be an overreaction.
Overall, the work displays a comprehensive knowledge of the literature in the discussion by its copious footnoting. While Ellis is apparently well informed on the scholarly opinions, he does not allow this take precedence over his own thorough exegetical practice on which he bases his claims. The biblical foundation on which Ellis builds is supplemented by archaeological research and dialogue with documents from the Pauline era. This allows Ellis to ably converse with other scholars on Pauline definitions and functions of ministry.
The first of these five sections is quickly applicable to ministry in that it defines the task. Ellis’s consideration that ministry is an activity wholly within the body of Christ focuses the activities of the minister. While sociopolitical action might be required by Christian ethics, it is no replacement for ministry. Ministers can thus benefit by understanding the scope and realm of their task. This is especially needed today when younger congregations seem to have a tendency toward a renewed involvement in such action.
Ellis’s section on the Spirit’s involvement in the ministry can be helpful for the teaching of the laity on the issue. In some churches, there can be confusion over the Spirit, but Ellis’s words can help pastors teach more precisely the Spirit’s involvement. The lecture also allows its readers, whether lay or clergy, to examine or re-examine their own spiritual gifts and how they might incorporate those gifts into fulfilling God’s purposes.
The fourth lecture can help the pastor organize the working of his congregation beyond simple ordering the services. Pastors can organize the life of their church in order to facilitate the use of the spiritual gifts by the church’s members within the church’s organized framework. That organization needs not necessarily fear having similarities with worldly organizations so long as the organization stems from the Christian experience.
Ellis has been very thoughtful regarding the Pauline conception of ministry and its relation to society. Ministers must also be likewise intentional in the manner in which they approach their ministry and their churches. In Ellis’s lectures, the minister will find both an example of the depth of consideration that must be put forward in the effort and a trove of material to instruct such an effort.
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