Hawaii, ten years on.

This past Friday I celebrated my tenth year in Hawaii. Man has the time gone fast, and it just seems like yesterday since I arrived! Now I am officially "kamaina" which means "local person" in Hawaiian. Yet looking back the move was bittersweet. I was happy in New Jersey so coming here, and pulling up my roots  was a big deal. I left a very comfortable job which I enjoyed and felt good at doing. I left many friends and a position I had spent building and developing for ten years. Even so, when my wife showed me the three options she had for her next assignment in the military, she let me pick. One said Hawaii and I forgot the other two. It was a no-brainer, it had to be Hawaii. And looking back, coming to Hawaii has been one of the best decisions we ever made. I had my moments though. I remember coming over on the plane and thinking, "wow, I have to start my life over again".

Hawaii was, and is, an adventure. It's a fantastic place to live. As in any new place, the first few years were spent " getting to know" just where everything is. Even though Oahu is a small island, there are still many places I have not yet explored. Getting around is sometimes a challange as many of the names of streets and towns still have Hawaiian names. Moreover, Oahu is a unique mix of different ethnic communities including Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Filipino, Samoan, Micronesian and of course Hawaiian. It's a multicultural paradise. I've lived in several countries and States, but coming to Hawaii is unlike anything else I had ever experienced. I often have to pinch myself to remind me that "yes" this is the USA and that I am living and working here. You can often go into local restaurants and be the only one who speaks English.

Looking back, I have often thought back to the Irish notion of peregrini, the Latin term for pilgrim. The notion of pilgrimage is often left out of our understanding of Christianity. Yet for many today, and in the past, peregrini was and is a core concept. It's useful to reflect on leaving what we are familiar and comfortable with in order to grow spirituality. This practice was at the heart of Celtic spirituality, as particularly noted in the life of Columba, who left Ireland and went onto to found the monastic settlement on the remote Scottish island of Iona. Columba went onto achieve great things on Iona, and later  at the community on Lindisfarne. Columba never returned to Ireland yet his legacy was great. I have often thought of those wandering Celtic monks, who left their families, towns, and home country, and trekked across Europe, founding monasteries, touching lives, hearing and learning new languages. It must have been exciting (even in an addictive way) to wander as they did.

Looking back over the last ten years, I think it's helpful to recall that I too am on pilgrimage. And like Columba, I am invited to leave the known, journey into the unknown, which often includes my own "shadow" self. Along the way, I have learned to let go of certain expectation I might have, and to live in the moment, and to embrace whatever life brings. Life, and the spiritual life can be a wonderful adventure. May God lead you to a place or situation where you never imagined you could be.

The New Perspective on Paul

"Paul was reacting primarily against the exclusivism which he himself had previously fought to maintain. In particular, he was reacting against the conviction (shared by most other Christian Jews) that 'works of the law', such as (or particularly) circumcision and laws of clean and unclean, continued to prescribe the terms of covenant relationship for Gentiles as well as Jews. It was in and from this conflict that Paul's doctrine of justifcation by faith alone achieved its classic expression (Gal.2:1-21)."
The Cambridge Companion to St. Paul, James Dunn (ed), 2003.

My article on N.T. Wright generated alot of questions and as a result, I would like to write an entry on one of the ongoing debates in New Testament research these days referred to as "the new perspective on Paul" ("NPP" to follow). Let me first provide some background information, and then outline what I see as the main points of this "new perspective".

Surprisingly, the majority of scholars linked to the NPP are Anglo-American. Usually one could expect some German influence, as many of the great theologlians are German, but then again this is largely a rejection of another German named Martin Luther. One can connect the dots between the work of W.D. Davies, E.P. Sanders, James Dunn, and N.T. Wright whose work each built on the other. Of those mentioned, the latter two, Dunn and Wright, have written the most on the topic. If you want to dive into the NPP debate, any of the works by Dunn and Wright would be excellent places to start. For example, why not try N.T. Wright's Paul In Fresh Perspective (2005) as a pu pu as they say in Hawaiian!  They are well worth the effort.

NPP writers argue that we need to rethink how we read Paul, and how we understand Judaism. Much of our views have been distorted by Luther (mostly) and Calvin (to a lesser degree). In short, we have read the Reformers interpretations over Paul's and a result misunderstood both what Paul was trying to say and first century Judaism. In an interesting twist, Wright and others advocate for sola scriptura, which must drive the Reformed crowd nuts. But that is Wright and others point. Lets go back to what the Scriptures say which might not be what we have been taught. Scholars like Sanders have helped to carve out a new appreciation of Judaism for example, and that first century Judaism was never a religion of legalism based on works of righteousness. To put it in terms we in the Celtic world would appreciate, Judaism was not an early version of Pelagianism. Sanders coined the phrase "covenantal nomism" to describe the pattern of religion found in the Second Temple and Rabbinic Judiasm. This was a system which was based on the covenant and which required a proper response from the follower.

If Paul was not protesting against Judaism, what was he protesting against then? According to the NPP, Paul was more of a zealot for his country than a devout Jew. And once Paul converted to Christianity, he railed not against the Law, but rather a limited view of Judaism, a Judaism which focused more on the cultural aspects such as circumcision, purity codes, and that which ultimately separated the Jews from the Gentiles. Paul's understand of the Law and Covenant was wider than his contemporaries, and was one which he felt was meant to include the Gentiles.

There is more to the NPP debate than this, but these two points seem to me to be the most important and controversial ones. Now you can disagree with the NPP and that's fine. But if you are serious about New Testament studies, and want new perspectives for preaching and your own knowledge, you would be well to become familar with the writings of both Wright and Dunn who are two of the finest New Testament critics in the English speaking world today. These men remind us, and rightly I think, that there is always something new and fresh to learn when it comes to understanding God's word, and it's relevance for our life in the world today. Each age is challanged to interpret anew and to struggle with what the New Testament means.

After completing this article, I found a cool clip on Youtube, with both Wright and Dunn, that I wanted to include and is linked here. This also provides an excellent introduction to the NPP. Enjoy.