Perfecting Grace<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In his recently-released Paul & the Gift, John Barclay argues that the concept of \u201cgrace\u201d is multi-faceted and \u201csusceptible to \u2018perfection'\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/09\/perfecting-grace\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Perfecting Grace\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In his recently-released Paul & the Gift, John Barclay argues that the concept of \u201cgrace\u201d is multi-faceted and \u201csusceptible to \u2018perfection'\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/09\/perfecting-grace\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" 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{"id":17553,"date":"2015-09-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=2378"},"modified":"2015-09-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-09-14T00:00:00","slug":"perfecting-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/09\/perfecting-grace\/","title":{"rendered":"Perfecting Grace"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<\/head>

In his recently-released\u00a0Paul & the Gift<\/a>, John Barclay argues that the concept of \u201cgrace\u201d is multi-faceted and \u201csusceptible to \u2018perfection\u2019 (conceptual extension) in a number of different ways\u201d (6). He takes the notion of \u201cperfection\u201d from Kenneth Burke, who describes it as the inclination to \u201cdraw out\u201d a concept to \u201clogical conclusion\u201d and \u201cultimate reduction,\u201d so as to isolate the concept in its pure form (Barclay, 67-68).<\/p>\n

Barclay is working out the Pauline notion of grace under the rubric of anthropological treatments of the gift, and he argues that the notion of \u201cgrace\u201d can be perfected in regard to the giver, the gift, or the reception of the gift. He enumerates six \u201cperfections\u201d of grace: superabundance; singularity, the notion that benevolence is the giver\u2019s exclusive attribute; priority, in which the gift of grace is seen as always prior to the initiative of the recipient; incongruity, the notion that a gift is given \u201cwithout regard to the work of the recipient\u201d; efficacy, which highlights the fact that the gift \u201cfully achieves what it was designed to do\u201d; and non-circularity, the notion that the gift does not demand a response (70-75).<\/p>\n

Barclay emphasizes that these perfections do not entail one another: \u201cTo perfect one facet of gift-giving does not imply the perfection of any or all of the others\u201d (75). It would, for example, be possible to perfect the priority <\/em>of grace without perfecting its incongruity<\/em>; not only possible, but actual, since this is pretty much late medieval soteriology in a nutshell. Yet this non-entailment is often forgotten, and discussions of grace slip from one perfection to another, or assume that perfecting grace in one dimension implies perfection elsewhere. A lack of clarity about these varieties of perfection produces confusion. For those who define grace in terms of one perfection (say, incongruity), a congruent grace is no grace at all. Lack of clarity also means that different conceptions of grace are viewed as differences in emphasis on grace.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This sixfold typology provides Barclay with a powerful tool to examine conceptions of grace in Christian theology, in contemporary Pauline studies, and in Judaism.<\/p>\n

He commends, for instance, that \u201cPelagius held firmly to the superabundance of divine grace, which was prior to all human activity.\u201d Pelagius emphasizes grace just as much as Augustine. But Augustine defined grace differently, perfecting incongruity. In short, \u201cAugustine did not believe in grace more <\/em>than Pelagius; he simply believed in it differently<\/em>\u201d (77).<\/p>\n

He argues that confusions about different perfections of grace have dogged Sanders and the New Perspective. When Sanders claims that Judaism was a \u201creligion of grace,\u201d he is claiming essentially that Judaism perfected the priority of grace: One gets in<\/em> by grace.He also argues that Judaism taught that grace is also incongruous. But then he has some trouble with texts that appear to teach a congruence between grace and worth, apparently operating on the assumption that \u201cif grace were shown to be congruous with the worth of its recipient, it could not be considered grace at all\u201d (155). Sanders appears to think that incongruity is inherent in the notion of the priority of grace, which is not the case (157).<\/p>\n

Barclay strikingly argues that for Douglass Campbell grace is only grace if it is perfected in all six registers: \u201cfor him, grace is not only superabundant and prior (originating), and not only incongruous (undeserved) and efficacious (God\u2019s agency being all-sufficient), but also singular (God is benevolent and not just) and non-circular (there is no necessary human response, no \u2018strings attached\u2019).\u201d This leaves Campbell\u2019s Paul sounding like a cross between Marcion and Luther (173).<\/p>\n

Barclay deploys his typology effectively in examining second temple Judaism as well. He argues that characterizing Judaism simply as \u201ca religion of grace\u201d is nearly meaningless unless \u201cgrace\u201d is more closely analyzed. All the texts he examines emphasize the \u201cabundance\u201d of grace,\u201d but none perfects non-circularity: Philo for instance \u201cpresupposes that God\u2019s gifts are not unilateral; for him, as for others, \u2018grace\u2019 elicits thanksgiving, worship, and obedience\u201d (314). For his study of Paul \u2013 and for assessing the post-Reformation reception of Paul \u2013 his finding that some Jewish writers \u201cstress the incongruity of divine mercy, while others . . . do not\u201d is an important discovery. It would be a mistake to claim that the former have a \u201cpurer\u201d idea of grace than the latter; they simply perfect grace differently. What is important, thought, for a study of Paul is the prospect that \u201cthe congruity or incongruity of grace was one of several related issues that were debated <\/em>among Second Temple Jews\u201d (315). In any case, the more nuanced exposition of grace in Judaism undermines any effort to set Paul\u2019s views simply over-against or simply consistent-with Judaism. It is rather a matter of locating Paul on a complex map of options.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been waiting eagerly for Barclay\u2019s book for some time. I haven\u2019t even gotten to his treatment of Paul, and its already proving to be well worth the wait.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"