Paul’s New Creation

The author focuses on Paul’s new creation’s cosmic and ecclesiastical nature by offering the ekklēsia as a tangible embodiment of God’s eschatological reign. Paul as a middleman fulfills the collective project of the Jerusalem collection to manifest God’s alternative economy against the exploitative system of the Roman Empire.

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Was Paul a middleman for God’s new creation? In Paul’s New Creation: Vision for a New World and Community, Sejong Chun suggests a surprising answer to this question through inter(con)textual readings of Paul’s (new) creation passages from the perspective of the Korean immigrant church in America. Sejong points out that scholars have regarded Paul’s new creation as if it were an abstract concept. The author focuses on its real character by proposing the ekklēsia as a tangible embodiment of God’s new creation, emphasizing its cosmic dimension and ecclesiastical meaning. Sejong suggests Paul as a middleman with his Gentile churches who delivered God’s super-abundant grace to the marginalized urban poor in the Jerusalem church. Paul and the early Christians in central cities around the Mediterranean basin fulfilled the collective project of the Jerusalem collection. Paul’s collection was an ultimate sign of independence from the Jerusalem church authority and a manifestation of a new and alternative economy against the exploitative and hierarchical structure of the Roman Empire.