Carr-Paul, trauma, and zeal

Posted on November 21, 2017 by jamesbradfordpate

theoutwardquest

David M. Carr in Holy Resilience treats Paul as the traumatized apostle.

Some of his points do not convince me.

He tries to suggest that Paul’s christiopanies (appearances of Christ and visions)were trauma-related. He points especially to the vision recounted in 2 Corinthians 12:2-4, which he suggests may be a doublet of the Damascus resurrection experience.  Thus, Paul’s visions would be like some dreams that trauma victims experience.

One problem with this is that even on a chronology that excludes the order of Acts, the 14-years-before-2 Corinthians vision does not come close to Paul’s Damascus experience, which had to be in the mid 30s.  2 Corinthians is mid 50s.

Also it does not take seriously that Paul put his resurrection experience on a par with the experiences of Peter, James and other witnesses.  There was something that united these experiences and counted against them being individual, subjective events.

So, no…

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About jamesbradfordpate

My name is James Pate. This blog is about my journey. I read books. I watch movies and TV shows. I go to church. I try to find meaning. And, when I can’t do that, I just talk about stuff that I find interesting. I have degrees in fields of religious studies. I have an M.Phil. in the History of Biblical Interpretation from Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio. I also have an M.A. in Hebrew Bible from Jewish Theological Seminary, an M.Div. from Harvard Divinity School, and a B.A. from DePauw University.
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