What do you think?
Rate this book
Paul and the Person: Reframing Paul's Anthropology
In this book Susan Grove Eastman presents a fresh and innovative exploration of Paul’s participatory theology in conversation with both ancient and contemporary conceptions of the self. Juxtaposing Paul, ancient philosophers, and modern theorists of the person, Eastman opens up a conversation that illuminates Paul’s thought in new ways and brings his voice into current debates about personhood.
224 pages, Paperback
First published October 23, 2017
25 people are currently reading
137 people want to read
About the author
Susan Grove Eastman
5 books4 followersSusan Eastman is associate research professor of New Testament at Duke Divinity School. Her current research explores the formation and transformation of identity in the letters of Paul, in conversation with current work issues of human flourishing in science, psychology, and medical ethics.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
May 22, 2023
Like the title says, Eastman is seeking to offer an alternative to understanding the human person as an autonomous individual. She works through concepts of agency, stoicism, modern psychology, does some work in Greek, and covers a number of other things. This is an academic work, and it's technical. What she offers is a way of understanding Paul when he says things like, "It's no longer I who live..." as he speaks about his own actions. She puts forward an understanding of persons as all interconnected instead of being individuals that occasionally interact with another individual.
June 22, 2021
A book for seminary in my class: God and Humanity. Fantastic and over my head. Her perspective on humanity bring 2nd person is something I will need to reflect on for a long time.
July 28, 2021
Eastman offers a fascinating interdisciplinary exploration of Paul’s anthropology, through a conversation with both ancient and contemporary notions of personhood. Bridging the fields of New Testament studies, Classical studies on Epictetus, and modern studies of the self (from neuroscience and experimental psychology), the author navigates the deep questions of human identity with finesse and thoughtfulness. The well-crafted conclusion is that Pauline anthropology could be well described as a relational model of perception (or as Eastman defines, a second-person perspective, p.15), having resonances with participatory readings of the apostle’s theology.
After a foreword by John M. G. Barclay, the book begins with an introduction that describes the the ‘puzzle’ in Pauline understandings of the person, having in mind the writings of Rudolf Bultmann and Ernst Käsemann. As Eastman notes, the issue at stake is how Paul understood the human identity, and the divine relation to this identity, in face of the theological potential in the pauline corpus. After this, the main concepts are defined (‘person’, ‘self’, and the taxonomy of first, second and third-person perspectives).
The argument of the book is presented in two main parts, which could be characterized as “triangular” arguments. The first part brings three anthropological standpoints into conversation: (1) Epictetus, a stoic philosopher from the late 1st century AD; (2) recent works on the self as both embodied and socially embedded, particularly in the studies by the philosopher of science Shaun Gallagher, and the neuroscientist and expert in infant cognition, Vasudevi Reddy; and (3) the apostle Paul, more specifically in his discourse of the ‘body’, having as primary interpreters Bultmann and Käsemann. From this three-way conversation, Eastman contrasts Paul’s participatory view of the embodied self with Epictetus more discrete and freely-active and cognitive self. In other words, Epictetus could be well-described as a conjoint exploration in first-person (a self that is self-conscious and capable of making decisions concerning itself in isolation) and third-person (a self that is analytical and fully capable of understanding the cosmos through reason and perceptions), resulting in a self that evaluates the world and can ‘decide’ which elements, emotions and ideas can be internalized and received in one’s interior castle (a description very similar to Charles Taylor’s ‘buffered self’). Paul, on the other hand, has an embodied view of the self. Individuals are not fully in control of their mind, as if they could abstract and separate themselves from the cosmos, and be guided by their immaterial elements only. Their bodily experience is highly influential on self-perception and even limiting for the categories one can use to describe itself (similar to Taylor’s ‘porous self’). Following Käsemann, the author concludes that the body for Paul emphasizes other-relation. “There is no possibility of existence outside such other-relation. The determining factor in whether such other-relation is for good or for ill depends on the relational partner.” (p.105) So an individual can only be restored from ill-funded self-perceptions by the shift in one’s world (cosmos) and worldview, through new relational bonds.
This brings us to the second part of the book, also in a triangular shape. The angles here are three key texts in Paul’s understanding of the human identity, worth and possibilities: (1) Romans 7, which in the argument of Paul’s letter discloses “an ‘I’ inhabited and overtaken by a hostile colonizing power that causes it to act against its own desires and separates the results of its actions from its own intentions” (109-110), a ‘self’ marked by the definitive dominion of sin; but if the first part of the book argued, the self is ‘structured in other-relationship’ the logical conclusion is that ‘its liberation and health require a radically new relational matrix’ (125). takes us over to the second angle (2) Philipians 2, and the modus operandi in God’s central participation in the human condition for the latter’s liberation. As Eastman notices, Paul does not base human worth in the imago dei in Creation, but in the fact that Christ became a human being based on love and for the rescue of all humanity. Drawing from a theater metaphor, the author analyzes in which ways Christ ‘im-personates’ Adamic humanity in its condition of death and hopelessness, to initiate a cycle of participatory and saving relationship with humanity. Now this brings us to (3) Galatians 2, where Paul’s understanding the tension between the statements that ‘Christ lives in me’ (Christ’s agency) and ‘I live in the flesh’ (Paul’s agency) is explored in depth. The conclusion is that “insofar as the self is always a self-in-relationship, when it is embedded in a new relational matrix it becomes a new self. Insofar as this new self still lives ‘in the flesh’, it repeatedly must confront the old relationally constructed existence that was ‘crucified with Christ’. Because these two spheres of existence are mutually opposed, to live in both simultaneously is to live in the midst of conflict, where one’s allegiance is tested daily” (160). Thus, we find a Paul that sees Christ already in his congregations, but highly in need of pastoral exhortation.
Finally, Eastman concludes with a series of helpful summaries, also delineating further questions that her work could spring. Special note should go to Eastman’s sharp questions on the meaning of personhood for the relational care of persons with extreme cognitive disabilities. In short, you definitely should take your time to engage this work, and consider the implications for Christian public thought and ministry when dealing with persons in-relation.
After a foreword by John M. G. Barclay, the book begins with an introduction that describes the the ‘puzzle’ in Pauline understandings of the person, having in mind the writings of Rudolf Bultmann and Ernst Käsemann. As Eastman notes, the issue at stake is how Paul understood the human identity, and the divine relation to this identity, in face of the theological potential in the pauline corpus. After this, the main concepts are defined (‘person’, ‘self’, and the taxonomy of first, second and third-person perspectives).
The argument of the book is presented in two main parts, which could be characterized as “triangular” arguments. The first part brings three anthropological standpoints into conversation: (1) Epictetus, a stoic philosopher from the late 1st century AD; (2) recent works on the self as both embodied and socially embedded, particularly in the studies by the philosopher of science Shaun Gallagher, and the neuroscientist and expert in infant cognition, Vasudevi Reddy; and (3) the apostle Paul, more specifically in his discourse of the ‘body’, having as primary interpreters Bultmann and Käsemann. From this three-way conversation, Eastman contrasts Paul’s participatory view of the embodied self with Epictetus more discrete and freely-active and cognitive self. In other words, Epictetus could be well-described as a conjoint exploration in first-person (a self that is self-conscious and capable of making decisions concerning itself in isolation) and third-person (a self that is analytical and fully capable of understanding the cosmos through reason and perceptions), resulting in a self that evaluates the world and can ‘decide’ which elements, emotions and ideas can be internalized and received in one’s interior castle (a description very similar to Charles Taylor’s ‘buffered self’). Paul, on the other hand, has an embodied view of the self. Individuals are not fully in control of their mind, as if they could abstract and separate themselves from the cosmos, and be guided by their immaterial elements only. Their bodily experience is highly influential on self-perception and even limiting for the categories one can use to describe itself (similar to Taylor’s ‘porous self’). Following Käsemann, the author concludes that the body for Paul emphasizes other-relation. “There is no possibility of existence outside such other-relation. The determining factor in whether such other-relation is for good or for ill depends on the relational partner.” (p.105) So an individual can only be restored from ill-funded self-perceptions by the shift in one’s world (cosmos) and worldview, through new relational bonds.
This brings us to the second part of the book, also in a triangular shape. The angles here are three key texts in Paul’s understanding of the human identity, worth and possibilities: (1) Romans 7, which in the argument of Paul’s letter discloses “an ‘I’ inhabited and overtaken by a hostile colonizing power that causes it to act against its own desires and separates the results of its actions from its own intentions” (109-110), a ‘self’ marked by the definitive dominion of sin; but if the first part of the book argued, the self is ‘structured in other-relationship’ the logical conclusion is that ‘its liberation and health require a radically new relational matrix’ (125). takes us over to the second angle (2) Philipians 2, and the modus operandi in God’s central participation in the human condition for the latter’s liberation. As Eastman notices, Paul does not base human worth in the imago dei in Creation, but in the fact that Christ became a human being based on love and for the rescue of all humanity. Drawing from a theater metaphor, the author analyzes in which ways Christ ‘im-personates’ Adamic humanity in its condition of death and hopelessness, to initiate a cycle of participatory and saving relationship with humanity. Now this brings us to (3) Galatians 2, where Paul’s understanding the tension between the statements that ‘Christ lives in me’ (Christ’s agency) and ‘I live in the flesh’ (Paul’s agency) is explored in depth. The conclusion is that “insofar as the self is always a self-in-relationship, when it is embedded in a new relational matrix it becomes a new self. Insofar as this new self still lives ‘in the flesh’, it repeatedly must confront the old relationally constructed existence that was ‘crucified with Christ’. Because these two spheres of existence are mutually opposed, to live in both simultaneously is to live in the midst of conflict, where one’s allegiance is tested daily” (160). Thus, we find a Paul that sees Christ already in his congregations, but highly in need of pastoral exhortation.
Finally, Eastman concludes with a series of helpful summaries, also delineating further questions that her work could spring. Special note should go to Eastman’s sharp questions on the meaning of personhood for the relational care of persons with extreme cognitive disabilities. In short, you definitely should take your time to engage this work, and consider the implications for Christian public thought and ministry when dealing with persons in-relation.
December 4, 2021
I’m being charitable with a 4-star review because I don’t know what was happening over half the time while reading this haha. This was an assignment for seminary. I assume that if I understood more, I would really think this is a fantastic book. From what I DID understand, I thought Eastman had really fantastic insights & a strong thesis & progression throughout. Read if you dare — tis not for the faint of heart.
April 28, 2020
Galatians 2:20 is a verse that has stuck with me ever since memorizing it as a teenager, growing up in an evangelical church and community in the Midwest. “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” While I have long used it as a kind of battle cry, intending to muster up a desire to endure discipline or resist temptation, I have rarely admitted to myself how puzzling some of the phrases are: I “no longer live’? Christ “lives in me”? Not having a sufficient framework to understand exactly what Paul is describing here, I have often settled only for the vague emotional boost--until reading Susan Eastman’s Paul and the Person.
Pauline anthropology is a “puzzle”, writes Eastman, and many attempts to translate what he writes about personhood and identity often end up either obscuring or distorting his meaning. The answer lies in a “second-person approach” to identity and personhood, in which “embodied and embedded” persons are fundamentally constituted in relationship, not only with their bodies, their environment, and other persons, but also “cosmic and corporate powers greater than the individual,” like the powers of sin and death, or Christ (20). Galatians 2:19-20 (and a parallel in Romans 17:15-20) “suggest a pattern of talking about persons in which the self is never on its own but always socially and cosmically constructed in relationship to external realities that operate internally as well. (8)” In other words, rather than relationality resting on the foundation of individuality, relationality is actually more fundamental to persons (16).”
This contrasts with the “first-person approach” to identity and personhood which many in the modern West take for granted; in a first-person approach, relationality presupposes individuality, and individuality is the foundation of personhood. I admit that in this respect, I am an American through-and-through; individuality is simply the air I breathe, the way I make sense of the world. But Eastman argues that this is out-of-step with the writings of Paul. To highlight this, she brings the ancient Stoic philosopher Epictetus (and Pauline scholar Troels Engberg-Peterson, who views Paul through the lens of the Stoics) into conversation. For Epictetus, “the self exists on a continuum with all of nature, which in turn is infused with and in some way coterminous with divine reason--that is, with God. (48)” It is a genuine pantheism; “there is no genuine ‘other’ in a cosmos in which everything is a part of the whole (61),” and therefore there is no possibility for a second-person perspective on the person.
Eastman also (helpfully) invites a host of contemporary philosophers, neuroscientists, and psychologists--Shaun Gallagher, Vasudevi Reddy, Vittorio Gallese, to name a few--into a cross-disciplinary conversation, uncovering a surprising amount of convergence in support for a “participatory anthropology (26)”, which she uses to translate Paul’s thought for modern ears. Eastman sums up the findings of many of these contemporary thinkers by writing that “our bodies are interacting with our environments from the very beginning, all the time, and this interaction profoundly shapes the development of the self in interpersonal ways. (70)” In one of the most striking quotations in the book, Gallagher writes that “We are not just what happens in our brains. The ‘loop’ extends through and is limited by our bodily capacities, into the surrounding environment, which is social as well as physical and feeds back through our conscious experience into the decisions we make (70).” After setting the groundwork in participatory anthropology, Eastman spends the second half of the book exploring the ramifications: in the “evacuation of the self” in Romans 7 (109), the “new Christological agent” in Philippians 2 (126), and union with Christ in Galatians 2 (151).
Those puzzling phrases in Galatians 2:20 are decoded: moving from being fundamentally constituted in relationship with the powers of sin and death, to being constituted in relationship with Christ, a person becomes “new”: “Insofar as the self is always a self-in-relationship, when it is imbedded in a new relational matrix it becomes a new self. (160)” The old self passes away with the old relational matrix; the new self emerges in the context of a new relational matrix.
Eastman is a top-notch academic. She draws from a vast number of resources across an array of disciplines (John M. Barclay aptly called her an “intellectual explorer” in his foreword) and successfully draws important and surprising connections. Indeed, much of the strength of her conclusions comes from her interdisciplinary approach; she seems to move easily from discussing ancient Stoicism to experimental psychology to biblical studies to modern philosophy. As an associate research professor at Duke Divinity School, it makes sense why she writes as an academic for an academic audience. Her language is often difficult to follow (at many points, I found myself having to read a paragraph several times over to make sense of it), but after wrestling for a while, it absolutely gives a blessing. I would still very much recommend this work to a lay reader, but would just suggest that they take their time reading it.
Her suggestions in the final chapter on how her insights might be used moving forward were especially helpful: for instance, how might a participatory anthropology affect how we think about the possibility of spiritual change and growth? “If human beings, then, live and move and have their being in complex, often conflicting networks, transformation also happens through those networks. (181)” I was particularly struck by how Eastman grounds the dignity of human life primarily in the fact of the incarnation, not creation in the image of God: “Paul’s anthropology counters any criterialism about qualifications for being a person, precisely because it is grounded in the story of Christ’s mimetic assimilation to the human condition. (178)” How might this impact how we speak of the dignity of some of the most vulnerable (namely, the unborn and disabled)?
I recommend this book to any who wonder about the puzzling turns of phrase Paul often employs to describe our relationship with Christ, and more generally, to any who care to engage thoughtfully and biblically with areas of sexuality, gender, race and ethnicity (as a gay man, Eastman’s talk of identity being constituted in relationship got me thinking about how being relationally oriented toward the same sex--or experiencing any kind of enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, aesthetic, or physical attraction toward a particular kind of person--necessarily impacts identity on a fundamental level). Eastman makes a solid case for the second-person perspective, and I suspect it will be a foundational text which will set the trajectory of Pauline studies for years to come.
Pauline anthropology is a “puzzle”, writes Eastman, and many attempts to translate what he writes about personhood and identity often end up either obscuring or distorting his meaning. The answer lies in a “second-person approach” to identity and personhood, in which “embodied and embedded” persons are fundamentally constituted in relationship, not only with their bodies, their environment, and other persons, but also “cosmic and corporate powers greater than the individual,” like the powers of sin and death, or Christ (20). Galatians 2:19-20 (and a parallel in Romans 17:15-20) “suggest a pattern of talking about persons in which the self is never on its own but always socially and cosmically constructed in relationship to external realities that operate internally as well. (8)” In other words, rather than relationality resting on the foundation of individuality, relationality is actually more fundamental to persons (16).”
This contrasts with the “first-person approach” to identity and personhood which many in the modern West take for granted; in a first-person approach, relationality presupposes individuality, and individuality is the foundation of personhood. I admit that in this respect, I am an American through-and-through; individuality is simply the air I breathe, the way I make sense of the world. But Eastman argues that this is out-of-step with the writings of Paul. To highlight this, she brings the ancient Stoic philosopher Epictetus (and Pauline scholar Troels Engberg-Peterson, who views Paul through the lens of the Stoics) into conversation. For Epictetus, “the self exists on a continuum with all of nature, which in turn is infused with and in some way coterminous with divine reason--that is, with God. (48)” It is a genuine pantheism; “there is no genuine ‘other’ in a cosmos in which everything is a part of the whole (61),” and therefore there is no possibility for a second-person perspective on the person.
Eastman also (helpfully) invites a host of contemporary philosophers, neuroscientists, and psychologists--Shaun Gallagher, Vasudevi Reddy, Vittorio Gallese, to name a few--into a cross-disciplinary conversation, uncovering a surprising amount of convergence in support for a “participatory anthropology (26)”, which she uses to translate Paul’s thought for modern ears. Eastman sums up the findings of many of these contemporary thinkers by writing that “our bodies are interacting with our environments from the very beginning, all the time, and this interaction profoundly shapes the development of the self in interpersonal ways. (70)” In one of the most striking quotations in the book, Gallagher writes that “We are not just what happens in our brains. The ‘loop’ extends through and is limited by our bodily capacities, into the surrounding environment, which is social as well as physical and feeds back through our conscious experience into the decisions we make (70).” After setting the groundwork in participatory anthropology, Eastman spends the second half of the book exploring the ramifications: in the “evacuation of the self” in Romans 7 (109), the “new Christological agent” in Philippians 2 (126), and union with Christ in Galatians 2 (151).
Those puzzling phrases in Galatians 2:20 are decoded: moving from being fundamentally constituted in relationship with the powers of sin and death, to being constituted in relationship with Christ, a person becomes “new”: “Insofar as the self is always a self-in-relationship, when it is imbedded in a new relational matrix it becomes a new self. (160)” The old self passes away with the old relational matrix; the new self emerges in the context of a new relational matrix.
Eastman is a top-notch academic. She draws from a vast number of resources across an array of disciplines (John M. Barclay aptly called her an “intellectual explorer” in his foreword) and successfully draws important and surprising connections. Indeed, much of the strength of her conclusions comes from her interdisciplinary approach; she seems to move easily from discussing ancient Stoicism to experimental psychology to biblical studies to modern philosophy. As an associate research professor at Duke Divinity School, it makes sense why she writes as an academic for an academic audience. Her language is often difficult to follow (at many points, I found myself having to read a paragraph several times over to make sense of it), but after wrestling for a while, it absolutely gives a blessing. I would still very much recommend this work to a lay reader, but would just suggest that they take their time reading it.
Her suggestions in the final chapter on how her insights might be used moving forward were especially helpful: for instance, how might a participatory anthropology affect how we think about the possibility of spiritual change and growth? “If human beings, then, live and move and have their being in complex, often conflicting networks, transformation also happens through those networks. (181)” I was particularly struck by how Eastman grounds the dignity of human life primarily in the fact of the incarnation, not creation in the image of God: “Paul’s anthropology counters any criterialism about qualifications for being a person, precisely because it is grounded in the story of Christ’s mimetic assimilation to the human condition. (178)” How might this impact how we speak of the dignity of some of the most vulnerable (namely, the unborn and disabled)?
I recommend this book to any who wonder about the puzzling turns of phrase Paul often employs to describe our relationship with Christ, and more generally, to any who care to engage thoughtfully and biblically with areas of sexuality, gender, race and ethnicity (as a gay man, Eastman’s talk of identity being constituted in relationship got me thinking about how being relationally oriented toward the same sex--or experiencing any kind of enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, aesthetic, or physical attraction toward a particular kind of person--necessarily impacts identity on a fundamental level). Eastman makes a solid case for the second-person perspective, and I suspect it will be a foundational text which will set the trajectory of Pauline studies for years to come.
July 2, 2022
One of the more interesting interdisciplinary readings of Paul, Eastman incorporates contemporary neuroscience and scholarship on stoicism into her reading of Paul. Gives a good argument on the role of participation and imitation in Paul.
March 5, 2024
An exciting book! To be read slowly.
April 30, 2023
Had a really hard time tracing the thesis throughout the book. Clarity came in waves. Overall, it felt like it was doing too much.
December 14, 2019
Eastman argues for a paradigm shift in our understanding in that, rather than beginning with the idea of an individual and then an individual in relation to other, individuality presumes relationality, i.e., we become aware of ourselves in relation to others. Applying this inter-subjective and second-person perspective to Paul's anthropology, especially from Romans 7, Philippians 2 and Galatians 2, she arrives at a rich and nuanced understanding of personhood based on the gift given in Christ and ties together many threads of Paul's thought. The work builds slowly but comes together in a profound way in Chapters 5 and 6.
January 2, 2019
This book arrived into my 2018 reading list with a bit of a bang – rooted in the New Testament, written by a women, foreword by an author I’ve been working with, published by one of my favourite publishers, and engaging with my favourite question, Susan Grove Eastman’s Paul and the Person: Reframing Paul’s Anthropology is a book I needed to read.
https://www.thomascreedy.co.uk/book-r...
https://www.thomascreedy.co.uk/book-r...
May 24, 2018
A refreshing & rich take on Paul's anthropology by juxtaposing Paul with ancient philosophers and modern philosophers, psychologists & neuroscientists. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Paul's perspective on what it means to be human.
September 7, 2018
Excellent. Just the kind of book that will move Pauline scholarship into the public sphere. Interesting social and ethical implications derived from the primacy of interpersonality, and what it means to be a person.
July 28, 2024
Rethinking philosophy in light of Paul’s views on Personhood
An interesting book that offers insightful connections between the historical understanding of person, relevant to Paul, but also moving that to our modern understanding of self in light of sin and the work of Christ.
An interesting book that offers insightful connections between the historical understanding of person, relevant to Paul, but also moving that to our modern understanding of self in light of sin and the work of Christ.
November 9, 2024
It's difficult to make what the practical conclusions of this book are. There are hints of Barthian universalism and just generally odd statements that don't seem to go anywhere, and the book itself is nearly indigestable. I'm left going "What was the point of the last 170 pages?"
December 23, 2024
Fascinating!!!!!!!!
August 2, 2025
Had to read for seminary. Way too wordy and hard to understand.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews