Paul and the Conflict of Cultures: The Legacy of His Thought Today

The catastrophes of the twentieth century have decisively broken the grip of Aristotle's fixed universe on our minds. “Society” is no longer the logical category of statecraft that is to determine our lives. The glorious horrors of fascism discredited the survival of the fittest, upstaged even by the compulsory class equality of the Soviets. Instead we now appeal to “culture” and mutual “communication” as we hope to grow together in response to each other. The universe itself at last is open-ended. Particle physics and the genetic code ensure diversity for us all. Our individual gifts will reveal our identity and our mission in life. We are indeed personally answerable for the choices we make. The twenty-first century’s great leap forward is Jerusalem’s long foreshadowed answer to Athens. Not logic but experiment has been the mainspring that has unlocked it. The transformed life of the apostle Paul in Christ first experienced the developmental prospect that has inspired the cultural reformation of our time.