CLAS 357
(Freedom & Slavery in Religion, conc.)
May 1, 2024

Caravaggio, Conversion on the Way to Damascus (1601)

Response #3 Topics (due May 1, 11:59pm in D2L)

Study Guide for Final examination (Monday, May 6, 10:30am-12:30pm)

Creative Projects?




Relief sculpture depicting chained slave (Smyrna, ca. 200 CE)

Paul the Apostle (2 BCE-ca. 65 CE): Saul of Tarsus (Roman citizen, persecutor of Christians) converts on road to Damascus ("servant of Christ Jesus", Romans 1:1; mistranslation of Grk. doulos, "slave"; cf. diakonos, "servant/minister"); major contributor to New Testament & Christian theology

• Christianity & institution of chattel slavery (Gregory of Nyssa, d. 394 CE, first to call for abolition): contradiction of egalitarian doctrine – (legal) slaves should obey masters, patriarchal model respected (hierarchy, inequality, power, brutality, etc.), shift focus to afterlife (cf. US slaveholders' use of Bible)
  
  
• Paul: education in Stoicism, e.g. figurative slavery, Stoic indifferents, only sapiens truly free; ethics of reciprocity in Colossians 3:22-24 (i.e. master's treatment of slaves: cf. benevolent paternalism in Seneca, Letter 47); adoption of slavery's patriarchal model – subversion of traditional slavery's horrors or fear of being counter-cultural (unity of slave and free worshippers, etc.)?
  
  
• Letter to the Galatians (ca. 50 CE): disputes with Judaizers in mission to Gentiles (Christians & observance of Jewish law); faith in Christ Jesus sufficient for "justification" (not Jewish law, "For through the law I died to law – to live for God. I have been crucified with Christ", Galatians 2:19-20)
  
  Galatians 4:1-8 (tranformation from slaves to heirs & sons – manumission through God's Son)
  This is what I mean: so long as the heir is a minor, he is no better off than a slave, even though the whole estate is his; he is subject to guardians and trustees until the date set by his father. So it is with us: during our minority we were slaves, subject to the elemental spirits [ta stoicheia] of the universe, but when the appointed time came, God sent his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to buy freedom for those who were under the law, in order that we might attain the status of sons . . . You are therefore no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, an heir by God's own act. Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to gods who are not gods at all.
  
  Galatians 3:27-28 (death of sin in baptism & rebirth; status-free freedom for eternity?)
  Baptized into union with him, you have put on Christ like a garment. There is no such thing as Jew and Greek, slave and freeman, male and female; for you are all one person in Christ Jesus. So if you belong to Christ, you are the 'issue' of Abraham and heirs by virtue of the promise.
  
  
• restraint on new freedom (human life)
  
  Galatians 5:13 (egalitarian community of worshippers – solidarity?)
  You, my friends, were called to be free; only beware of turning your freedom into license for your unspiritual nature. Instead, serve [douleuete] one another in love . . .
  
  
  Relief sculpture depicting manumission ceremony (1st century BCE)
  
  
• Letter to the Romans (ca. 50 CE): further defense of Paul's ministry against Judaizers; faith over law, inward spirit over external law/written code, liberation from sin ("We know that our old humanity has been crucified with Christ, for the destruction of the sinful self, so that we may no longer be slaves to sin", Romans 6:6; "In Christ Jesus the life-giving law of the Spirit has set you free from the law of sin and death", Romans 8:2)
  
  
• slavery a (transformed) positive state – slavery in freedom (life as faithful, sanctified & obedient slaves before God)?
  
  Romans 6:12-19 (transferring ownership of bodies from sin to God: emancipation from sin to righteousness)
  Therefore sin must no longer reign in your mortal body, exacting obedience to the body's desires. You must no longer put any part of it at sin's disposal, as an implement for doing wrong. Put yourselves instead at the disposal of God; think of yourselves as raised from death to life, and yield your bodies to God as implements [hopla, "equipment/weapons"; cf. Varro's instrumentum vocale] for doing right. Sin shall no longer be your master, for you are no longer under law, but under grace . . . You know well enough that if you bind yourselves to a master, you are slaves of the master you obey; and this is true whether the master is sin and the outcome death, or obedience and the outcome righteousness. Once you were slaves of sin, but now thank God, you have yielded wholehearted obedience to that pattern of teaching to which you were made subject; emancipated from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness (to use the language that suits your human weakness). As you once yielded your bodies to the service [doula] of impurity and lawlessness, making for moral anarchy, so you must yield them to the service of righteousness, making for a holy life.
  
  Romans 8:14-17 (from slaves to adopted children & heirs – cf. Galatians 4:1-8)
  For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. The Spirit you have received is not a spirit of slavery, leading you back into a life of fear, but a Spirit of adoption, enabling us to cry, 'Abba! Father!' The Spirit of God affirms to our spirit that we are God's children; and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow-heirs with Christ.
  
  Romans 8:23 (human life as slavery?)
  . . . we look forward eagerly to our adoption, our liberation from mortality.