Seyoon Kim Libri

The book presents a compelling argument that the origin of Paul's gospel is rooted in his personal revelation of Jesus Christ on the Damascus road, rather than in external influences like Palestinian or Hellenistic Judaism, mystery cults, or Gnosticism. Seyoon Kim emphasizes the importance of acknowledging Paul's own testimony to fully grasp his theology and the distinctiveness of his message. This perspective challenges prevailing scholarly interpretations and seeks to deepen the understanding of Paul's contributions to Christian thought.

The book explores the significance of Paul's conversion to Christianity, emphasizing its crucial role in understanding the New Testament. Seyoon Kim argues that the foundation of Paul's gospel stems from his transformative experience on the road to Damascus and his interpretation of the Jesus tradition in that context. This analysis offers insights into the complexities of Paul's theology and its implications for early Christian thought.

Examining five of Paul's epistles, Seyoon Kim challenges the prevailing anti-imperial interpretation of his gospel, suggesting that Paul's writings do not explicitly oppose Roman imperial ideology. He then analyzes the Lukan texts to understand how they depict encounters with imperialism, noting Luke's lack of emphasis on political liberation in Christ's redemption. The book further compares Christologies in Luke, Revelation, Paul, and Hebrews, contemplating the potential for developing a political Christology relevant to contemporary issues.

The traditional understanding of Paul's doctrine of justification has an inherent problem of relating to his ethics. Following its anthropocentric approach to the doctrine, even the New Perspective makes little contribution toward resolving it. Hence, appreciating the facts that Paul places the doctrine in Romans within the inclusio of the Davidic Messiah Jesus' rule over all the nations as God's Son in Rom 1:3-5 and 15:12 and that his thesis about the doctrine in Rom 1:16-17 is but a soteriological statement about the effect of the Christologically formulated gospel of Rom 1:3-4, Seyoon Kim approaches the doctrine from both the Christological and anthropological perspectives. Thus he interprets justification as Herrschaftswechsel (cf. Käsemann), a transfer from the Satanic kingdom into the kingdom of God and his Son Jesus the Lord.