The Church: 13. Comparing Aristotle’s Politics [1] and Paul Introduction Paul’s understanding of the church can be fruitfully compared to the wider, Greek philosophical discussion of the state in antiquity. This is in part because the Church functions as an alternative ‘citizenship’: ‘ But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ’ (Phl. 3.20). It is also in part because politics involved an understanding of the family, just as, for Paul, the Church involved directives regarding the family (including slaves). The present essay comes in the form of a table in which I offer suggestions regarding the similarities and differences between Paul’s writings and an important philosophical work, Aristotle’s Politics , written some 400 years before Paul. If Paul did not for some reason know the text of this work, he most certainly would have been party to discussions related to its contents. Throu...
Rev. Dr. Rollin Grams
Exploring the interface between Scripture, ethics, and the Church's mission in our day