바울의 다마스쿠스 체험 재해석 -개종과 소명 사이에서-

Abstract

Paul’s Damascus experience was not only the most typical conversion, but also an event proving that Christianity is the truth. Generally speaking, it has been said that this assessment was made by Augustine and Luther. However, I think this view has already been established in the Acts of Apostles. The Acts of Apostles presents Paul as a member of Sanhedrin, a figure who led the killing of Stephen, and a figure who went to persecute Christians to Damascus with the authority of the high priest. But all three facts are inconsistent with historical facts. In the middle of the 20th century, Stendahl and several scholars argued that Paul’s experiences in Damascus should be evaluated through Paul’s statements, not through the Acts of Apostles. According to them, Paul understood the Damascus experience as God’s calling. Even after the Damascus experience, Paul did not think he was creating a new religion. Therefore, Paul’s Damascus experience is not a conversion but a calling. However, there is a problem in the view of Paul’s account of Damascus experience as a calling. First, after Paul became a Christian, many of the Jews as well as Christians thought that Paul’s faith was too radical and tried to kill him. This would not have happened if Paul had stayed within the boundary of Judaism. Then why did Paul said that his experience was a calling? It was because Paul had the pre-modern mentality. Pre-modern people thought the world regressed as time passed. Therefore, those who pursued something new did not insist on building themselves a new society, but on restoring the ideal state of the past. Given this view of the pre-modern world, the achievements of reformers like Paul should be evaluated through their actions and influences, not through what they claimed. From this point of view, Paul’s experience of Damascus was to create a new world.