“Did Paul Take Up the Great Commission” (Gupta)

“Did Saint Paul Take Up the Great Commission?: Discipleship Transposed into a Pauline Key” – that is the name of my essay in the brand-spankin’ new publication Ecclesia and Ethics: Moral Formation and the Church (T&T Clark Biblical Studies series), edited by John Frederick and his colleagues.

This book was a long time in the making and I am glad to finally see it in print. My interest in this essay is basically a historical question and a theological question. Firstly, the historical, if Jesus emphasized “disciples/discipleship” (according to the gospels), why is this terminology completely absent from the epistles and Revelation? Secondly, if the epistles and Revelation do not have a formal theology of “discipleship,” how do they express Christian obedience? Regarding Paul, I explore my own theory – and that is the theological interest. I presented this originally as a paper in two different environments and both times the auditors offered great feedback and much food for thought, some of which helped me re-shape the essay. Of all the little articles and essays I have written, this one I am particularly fond of, because it allowed me to dig into my interest in NT ethics and Christian discipleship.

So, shake out your piggy bank and scrape together $120 so you too can own this handsome volume! Or ask your theological library to order it. NB: there are several fine folks who contributed to this volume including Mike Gorman, Brian Rosner, NT Wright, Mariam Kamell, and “Stan the Man” Hauerwas.