Apaštalas Paulius kaip radikalus žydas Danielio Boyarino postmodernistinėje interpretacijoje

Abstract

Talmudo profesoriaus ir postmodernaus kultūros kritiko Danielio Boyarino veikalas „Radikalus žydas: Paulius ir tapatybės politika“ (1994) buvo vienas iš pirmųjų bandymų pažvelgti į Paulių iš ortodoksinio judaizmo perspektyvos. Autorius ne tik vadina krikščionių apaštalą „reikšmingu žydų mąstytoju“, o jo laiškus „įžymiausiais tekstais Vakarų literatūros klasikoje“, bet pristato jį kaip vidinį žydų kultūros kritiką. Šia prasme Paulius jam yra „paradigminis žydas“. Kalbėdamas apie tai, kas buvo Paulius ir koks buvo jo vaidmuo žydiškos ir krikščioniškos tapatybės formavimesi, jis taiko metodą, būdingą postmoderniai teksto kritikai. D. Boyarinas siekia atskleisti struktūrą, esančią anapus „paradigminio“ žydo mokymo. Paulius jam yra ne konvertitas iš judaizmo į krikščionybę, bet fariziejus, kelyje į Damaską užvaldytas helenistinės idėjos apie žmonių bendrystę

One of the most known titles for Paul of Tarsus is the Apostle of Nations. To Galatians Paul writes that the Lord called him to “preach Him among the Gentiles [ethnēs]” (Gal 1:16). Nevertheless, during his mission, he always attempted to preach in synagogues, and only in the case of resistance he turned to the pagan citizens. The question about Paul’s relationship with his own Jewish background and even with Judaeo-Christian community is still one of the most problematic. During the course of two millennium of Christianity, he was treated as the inventor of Christianity, as a Pharisee convert and promoter of anti-Semitism. The work of the Jewish Talmud professor and post-modern culture critic Daniel Boyarin “A Radical Jew: Paul and the Politics of Identity” (1994) was a radical novelty in the understanding of Paul from the Jewish orthodox perspective. The author not only calls a Christian apostle “an important Jewish thinker” and his letters “the most remarkable texts in the canon of western literature”, but tries to present him as a type of internal critic of the Jewish culture. Paul himself is in a sense paradigma of “the Jew”. Describing who Paul was and what was his impact on the formation of Christian and Jewish identity, he uses specific saussurian distinction of signified and signifier typical of postmodern text criticism. He tries to reveal the structure that lies behind the teaching of the “radical Jew”. Paul himself is a convert not from Judaism to Christianity, but rather a Pharisee who was caught by the Hellenist idea of human universality on his way to Damascus, if that concrete event had ever happened. He believes that Paul was motivated not by an abnormal psychological state but by a set of problems and ideas generated by his cultural, religious situation.[...]