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Tradition and Innovation in Early Christianity: my conference abstract

Tradition and Innovation in Early Christianity is a symposium to be held at the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry at ACU Melbourne, 15 to 17 August 2018. A group of scholars in the Netherlands recently received a large (€ 18.8m) grant to study innovation processes in the ancient world, and specifically the difference between invention or novelty and successful (or, as the case might be, failed) uptake of the invention. The Dutch program starts from the assumption that, for an innovation to be acceptable and successful it needs to be anchored in the known and familiar. Hence the title of the program: ‘Anchoring Innovation.’

The Tradition and Innovation in Early Christianity symposium is designed to learn about this project and see how its theoretical frame might be co-opted by early Christian studies and also refined by the new social and intellectual phenomena of Christianity, and the insights of theologians and historians of theology. A long-standing set of questions in patristic studies, of course, relates to how Christianity adapted ideas and forms of life from the surrounding Greco-Roman world. We hope that the emphasis on mechanisms of ‘anchoring’ might provide a useful framework to extend this scholarship and allow it to speak in new ways to other areas of the humanities.

I am wondering about taking some breathing space, using some days in lieu and some of the award from my Flinders University Vice-Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence in Teaching (ironically for leading sustained innovation in theological pedagogy) in order to articulate my academic thinking, what Dr Doug Gay described as a really strong reading of 1 Corinthians, that lies behind my book, Built for change: A practical theology of innovation and collaboration. My aim is to foreground some gospel and cultures dimensions, in particular the way Paul uses temple and parent, to demonstrate that for Paul the conversion of the imagination (to subvert a term from Richard Hays The Conversion of the Imagination: Paul as Interpreter of Israel’s Scripture), includes drawing on his cultural world. This is a missiological approach to innovation, guiding how we might engage with popular culture today.

Here’s my abstract:

Tradition and innovation in 1 Corinthians 3-4

In 1 Corinthians 3-4, the Apostle Paul uses 6 metaphors to describe his ministry. He is a servant, a gardener, a builder, an oikonomos, a fool and a parent. Each can be analysed in relation to tradition and innovation. This involves a number of angles.

First a looking back to Jesus Christ. This is consistent with the place that Paul gives to his encounter with Christ. It also provides a Christological angle on the six images of 1 Corinthians 3-4, in which Christ as servant, gardener, builder, oikonomos, fool and parent provide a tradition, yet also an innovation in understanding Paul’s ministry. This is particularly so with regard to fool and parent, which become radically counter-cultural in a context of pater- familias.

A second angle is provided when the six metaphors are located in relation to the context of Corinth. A fine example is that of builder, in which Paul’s use of temple in a context of multiple temples suggests an innovation which challenges boundaries of purity in ecclesial identity.

This suggests that the early Christianity of Corinth is both tradition and innovation. It draws on Paul’s training in Judaism and his experience of Christ. At the same time, Paul presents his ministry in ways that innovate, challenging the identity of the church in Corinth and the ways that ministry and family structures are understood.

(It was an abstract written in some haste, in a few spare minutes, sitting at a Koru lounge at Auckland international airport.)