My Writing Project

A few folks have asked me about the progress I have made on my current writing project.  Just for kicks, I thought I would provide the outline of the material I have written thus far.  Still a lot to do but I’m excited to have things coming together.  I’m especially excited about the chapter I’m currently writing — relating Pauline eschatology to the eschatology of imperial Rome — but I’m afraid I need to delay in order to work on a lecture I’m giving next month as well as an article I’ve been trying to write for awhile.  Anyway, for those who get excited when they read a Table of Contents, this post if for you!
Paul and the Uprising of the Dead: Eschatology, Ethics, and Empires
Introduction
0.1 Paul and the Anastasis of the Dead
0.2 Difficulties in Studying Paul
(A) Limits
(i) The Seven Non-Contested Letters
(ii) The Book of Acts
(iii) Secondary Literature
(B) Paul’s Non-Systematic Writings
(C) The Integrated Nature of Paul’s Life and Writings
(D) Distance from Paul
(E) Naïvité of our own Context(s)
0.3 Reading Paul as Scripture: Exegeting Authority
0.4 Situating Paul Within the Grand Narrative of the Bible
0.5 The Scholar as Partisan
0.6 Outline
Part One: The Apostle to the Nations and the Imperium Romanum
1.  Political Readings of Paul: The Main Alternatives
1.1 The Conservative or Spiritual Paul – Summary
(A)  Paul the Teacher of Conservative and Bourgeois Morals
(i) The Conservative Paul as a Positive Influence upon Society
(ii) The Conservative Paul as a Negative Influence on Society
(B) Paul’s Focus upon the Internal and Spiritual Freedom
(C) Paul’s Focus Upon an Imminent End and Disregard for the World
(D) Paul was Politically Conservative because He was Socially Powerless
Excursus: Seyoon Kim on Paul and Politics
1.2  The Conservative or Spiritual Paul – Questions and Criticisms
1.3  Paul, the Founder of a Christian Subculture – Summary
1.4  Paul, the Founder of a Christian Subculture – Questions and Criticisms
1.5  The No-Longer-Directly-Applicable Paul – Summary
(A) Paul did not realize the implications of his own thinking and writing
(B) Paul provides us with multiple political options
(C) Accepting Paul’s general principles while rejecting the specific details
1.6  The No-Longer-Directly-Applicable Paul – Questions and Criticisms
1.7 The Counter-Imperial Paul – Summary
1.8 The Counter-Imperial Paul – Questions and Criticisms
1.9  Conclusion
2.  Apocalyptic Eschatology Part One: The Background
2.1  Introduction
2.2  Eschatology
(A) Eschatology’s Loss and Recovery
(B) The Eschatologies of Pannenberg and Moltmann
(C) Eschatology Within Biblical Scholarship
(D) Summary
2.3  Apocalyptic
(A) A Similar Trajectory: Losing and Recovering Apocalypticism
(B) Apocalyptic Literature
(C) Apocalyptic Movements
(D) Summary
2.4  Paul’s Apocalyptic Eschatology
(A) Arising out of Jewish Apocalypticism and Centrality in Paul’s Life and Writings
(B) Features of Paul’s Christological and Pneumatological Apocalyptic Eschatology
(i.a) Eschatological Tension and the Overlap of the Ages
(i.b) A Realized Eschatology?
(i.c) The Overlap of the Ages Expressed in Imperative and Indicative Tenses
(ii) The Apocalypse of God’s Eschatological Spirit in Paul and the Assemblies of Jesus
(iii) Eschatology and Ethics: Questions of Pauline Sources
(iv) Eschatological Judgement
(v) The Parousia of Jesus Christ
(v.a) Christ’s Imminent Return and the Formulation of an Interim Ethics
(v.b) No Delay of the Parousia and the Formulation of a Timeless Ethics
(v.c) Paul Changed His Mind About the Imminence of Christ’s Return
(v.d) Hope Not Certainty: Further Qualifying Paul’s Sense of Imminence and its Ethical Implications
(C) Summary
2.5  Summary and Conclusion
3. Apocalyptic Eschatology Part Two: Confronting the Founding Narratives of Empires