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St Francis Magazine Vol 8, No 4 | August 2012
other, non-scripturated religious desires elsewhere among the nations.
21 Care is required lest any “fallacy” arising from “a deduction
from the assumption that Jesus could have become incarnate in any
culture” leads to the suggestion that ‘we should seek to “incarnate”
the gospel in Islamic culture.’ (Waterman 2007: 61) Clearly the
gospel can grow in different and alien cultural settings (see, e.g.,
Gefen (2007) regarding the origins of the Easter festival and Massey
(2004b) concerning the etymology of ‘God’), but terms such as
‘incarnational’ provide a slippery basis for argumentation if they are
loosed from salvation-historical moorings (Grafas 2007b).
Increasingly in this period, C5 proposals were also being criticised
for lacking a robust biblical basis. Part of the problem was the
level of biblical exegesis being employed at this stage in the debate.
Often it was isolated and shallow, and still open to the charge of
proof-texting.
A survey of the various appeals made to texts in 1 Corinthians
demonstrates the diversity of appeals to sections of the letter, and
the relative isolation of resultant argumentation from other appeals
to elsewhere in the epistle. Perhaps most appeal has been made to 1
Corinthians 9:19-23. Massey cited it as evidence of God’s unpredictability
(1999) and as supporting converts staying in their community
for as long as possible (2000b: 8-9). Caldwell (2000: 28) saw
it as justifying a clear differentiation of culture from religion as analytic
categories, and as implying a flexibility regarding matters of
purity. DeNeui (2005: 416) made similar use of this passage in his
defence of C5. Woods (2003) demurred from such conclusions, noting
that Paul did not adopt anti-Christian practices from Judaism,
nor did he cease to be ethnically a Jew. 22 For Woods, Paul’s stance
contrasts with that of C5 in that his beliefs were not concealed,
whereas C5 has the potential to lead towards C6. Woods also raised
21 Schlorff does not refer to ‘subversive fulfilment’, but this term chimes with
Schlorff’s overall thesis (2006: 103-136).
22 Both these points raise further questions concerning the essential nature of
Judaism, and the degree of fixity and flex within categories of ethnicity, questions
beyond the span of this review.
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