ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the difference between how Paul lives and how he thinks and the incongruity that is rationalized. In arguing the case for god's impartial justice, Paul takes as a shared assumption that the biblical god is god not only of the Jews but also of the Gentiles. The parallelism is expressed with the accent on difference in the opening sentences of the Introduction to Imagining Religion. Ritual is not best understood as congruent with the way things really are, but represents the construction of a controlled environment, exemplifying the perceived incongruity between the way things are and the way they ought to be. The unity of the world and of humankind was often expressed by reference to the 'heis theos' in philosophical traditions of the Greco-Roman world as well as by Hellenistic Jews. In the Second Temple period, Jews had a long history of political representation in the form of a priestly monarchy, Hasmonean kings, and Herodian client-kings.
