ABSTRACT
The authors in this part deserve special thanks for leading us into the still virgin wilderness of Pauline asceticism. As all the contributors have made clear from their different vantage points, this wilderness is “virgin” more in spirit than in actual practice. For what is most commonly recognized as ascetic discipline, celibacy or retreat to the desert, is given no real place in the Pauline communities. While Paul himself maintained a celibate and itinerant lifestyle, he went to pains to discourage anyone else from following suit. Ancillary disciplines, beyond those required of specific members by their community, are generally denounced as contrary to the gospel of Christ. But it is in these same letters that we find for the first time in the early church the development of a language of world renunciation. As it is stated forcefully in Romans: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God-what is good and acceptable and perfect” (12:2). The language of world renunciation continues into the more socially accommodating Deutero-Pauline letters, where the notion of renewal after the image and likeness of God (Col. 3:9-11, Eph. 4:22-24) deeply affected the subsequent development of the Christian ascetical tradition. How are we to address the deep ambiguity between word and deed in these letters in both their historical and interpretive frames?
