The slogan "Paul and the Empire" is much in vogue in New Testament scholarship today, reflecting the spirit of the times. But did Paul formulate his gospel in antithesis to the Roman imperial cult and ideology and seek to subvert the Empire? Seyoon Kim here examines five epistles of Paul exegetically to ascertain what kind of responses Paul really makes to the Roman Empire.
Contrary to the growing movement of anti-imperial interpretation, Kim finds no specific message along those lines in the epistles. He then subjects the method of these current interpreters to critical scrutiny and discusses the factors that make an anti-imperial interpretation of Pauline writings difficult. Next he examines the Lukan writings to see how Luke reports of the encounters of Paul and other preachers of the gospel with Roman imperialism. Kim discusses why it is that Luke makes no efforts to present Christ's redemption as materialized in terms of political liberation. Finally, Kim also compares the exaltation Christologies of Luke, Revelation, Paul and Hebrews and inquires about the hermeneutical possibility of developing a political Christology in our present-day context.
