ABSTRACT
Scholarship in the past three decades has recognized significant points of contact between the New Testament writings and popular philosophical understandings of the passions. This essay focuses on Pauline scholarship, demonstrating that although Paul accepts and utilizes particular methods for describing and treating certain passions, he avoids philosophical models for mastery of the passions. The first section surveys traditional twentieth-century approaches that dismissed Paul’s passion language as inconsistent and nonphilosophical in content. Then follows a detailed discussion of three themes: (1) Paul’s descriptions of his suffering and emotional hardships; (2) Paul’s treatment of grief, anxiety, and anger in his communities; (3) Paul’s strong rejection of “sinful” passions and desires. The essay concludes with suggestions as to why Paul avoids therapeutic models of self-mastery in his moral instructions for early Christian communities.
