Matt O'Reilly, PhD

What does future bodily resurrection have to do with present life in the body? Do Paul’s pastoral goals shed light on his attitude toward resurrection? Does hope for resurrection bear on the formation of group identity in the Pauline communities? These are the questions that energized my doctoral research, which is now available electronically from the University of Gloucestershire Research Repository. Here’s the abstract: This study investigates how Paul’s attitude towards f

During my recent trip to Wilmore, Kentucky, I had the opportunity to film another episode for Seedbed‘s growing Seven Minute Seminary series. This one explores the relationship between future bodily resurrection, Christian identity, and holiness. These three themes were at the heart of my PhD research, and I’m grateful to Seedbed for making some of that available more broadly. If you receive this via an email subscription, click here to watch the video. And be sure to check o

For Paul, the historicity of the resurrection of Christ and its “bodily” character are crucial. The historicity of the resurrection signifies its eschatological-temporal significance, that is, it is a proleptic event that inaugurates the new creation. The “bodily” character of the resurrection manifests the resurrection as an event that not only occurs in time but also signals the “bodily” ontological transformation of the created order in the kingdom of God. Therefore, the r

Schweitzer’s extraordinary thesis throws light on almost every aspect of Paul’s theology. It accepts and makes sense out of the Pauline understanding of the body in a way which no earlier interpretation could match. That it has been so little accepted and emulated is due in part to the utter strangeness of the conceptions which he sets forth; modern man does not appear to possess the philosophical assumptions to grasp such ideas of somatic unity. And this is what stamps Schwe

Several points should be made here. First, Paul’s letters are remarkably dissimilar from typical letters in the ancient world. They don’t look much like the other letters of his day. For example, Paul’s letters tend to be a good bit longer than other epistles from the Greco-Roman world. This might suggest that while the documents that bear Paul’s name were certainly addressed and delivered as letters, there may be something else going on as well. Second, given this dissimilar

With great confidence (and financial expenditure), May 21, 2011 is declared to be the day of Jesus’ return. Or the rapture. Or whatever. But, of course, it wasn’t. Neither was 1994 or 1982. When the obsession with eschatology (ideas about “the end”) produces such crazy results, it’s tempting to leave eschatology aside altogether. Let the obsessed have their little obsession while the rest of us get on with the business of real life, and real faith. But it would be a mistake t

What the ancient church teachers least wished for a theology was that it would be “fresh” or “self-expressive” or an embellishment of purely private inspirations, as if these might stand as some decisive improvement” on the apostolic teaching.” Yet from the first day I ever thought of becoming a theologian I have been earnestly taught and admonished to “think creatively” so as to make “some new contribution” to theology. Nothing at Yale was drummed into my head more firmly th

Consider, for Paul that justification is the present faith-anticipation of the eschatological verdict. Sanctification is the Spirit-life of the future come into the present. Salvation itself is a matter of being united with Christ in his death and resurrection, which is the first fruits of the final resurrection of the people of God. The presence of the Spirit in the Church marks it out as an eschatological community. And the Mosaic Law, though it was a good thing, is now obs

Such was not always the case in critical studies of Paul, though. Indeed, it was not until the early 20th century that Pauline scholarship really began to wrestle with the eschatological dimension of Paul’s letters. Albert Schweitzer is largely credited with establishing the importance of eschatology for the study of Paul, but, as far as I can tell, Geerhardus Vos was doing the same thing at about the same time. Vos’ monumental volume, The Pauline Eschatology, was first publi

Along with other student members of the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL), I recently received an email letter from John F. Kutsko, Executive Director of SBL, informing me of changes that have been made by the Council of SBL to the way in which student members may participate in the SBL Annual Meeting.  Here are those changes: 1. All students without a doctoral degree are required to submit to the Program Unit Chair the full text of the paper they will read. The paper will

I took my first trip to England earlier this fall to get started on my PhD in New Testament at the University of Gloucestershire.  I flew into London and was hosted by my friends, the Evans, for a night.  After worship at South Hanwell Baptist the next morning, I took a train to Cheltenham, where the University is based.  The train ride gave me a chance to see a lot of the picturesque west England countryside.  I spent a week in Cheltenham taking care of administrative detail

Today is an exciting day.  This morning I mailed off my letter of acceptance for an offer to do Ph.D. studies at the University of Gloucestershire.  My proposal is for a thesis titled Resurrection and the Life of Holiness: Sanctification as Inaugurated Eschatology in the Letters of Paul.  I’m really excited about this project because it combines two areas of great interest for me that have been somewhat neglected in recent Pauline scholarship.  With all the emphasis on issues