[quote]pushharder wrote:
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
[quote]DrSkeptix wrote:
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
[quote]DrSkeptix wrote:
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
This is an ultra-controversial topic for believers and I’m guessing most will avoid. But I’ll give it a go.
The German political philosopher and Nazi Carl Schmitt developed the “friend-enemy distinction” theory. He took Aristotle’s contention as given - “man is a political animal” - and explored the nature of the political group.
Schmitt argued that a political group can only maintain group cohesion and prevent dissolution via an “us versus them” ideology. The group needs a common enemy. This is the friend-enemy distinction.
Far from being a mindless Hitlerite, Schmitt was one of the greatest political philosophers of the 20th century. He had an interesting academic discourse with an orthodox Rabbi by the name of Jacob Taubes. Schmitt and Taubes both believed that anti-Semitism in Europe was of ancient pedigree dating back to the apostle Paul.
Schmitt believed that Jews and Christians are destined to eternal enmity due to the eschatology of both religions that anticipate an apocalyptic confrontation.
Any thoughts on this?[/quote]
You have (almost) no idea:
The author was of warm personal acquaintance.
His book is way, way over my head.
[/quote]
If it’s way, way over your head then it’s certainly going to be over mine. But from the description of the book, the author’s premise appears to me to be a position that only messianic Jews would accept.[/quote]
Uhh…no. But check it out. Lloyd, of blessed memory, did not write it for me.[/quote]
Any thoughts on the author’s contention that Paul’s congregation were Gentiles? The picture I get is of a Pharisee from the school of Gamaliel who formed an heretical Jewish sect.[/quote]
Paul’s congregations were primarily Gentile but surely not exclusively. The evidence is ample.
The Jews of Paul’s time were not confined to the borders of the nation of Israel. They were present in the congregations of Asia Minor hence the bitter dispute about the necessity or lack thereof of circumcision for believers which Paul addressed at length.[/quote]
I know the Jews of Paul’s time were not confined to Israel. For starters Paul was born in Tarsus so there’s a clue there.
Judaism was an officially sanctioned religion by the Roman Empire. Herod and after him the procurators appointed the high priests. See Acts 13:46 - this is where Paul breaks with state sanctioned Judaism. He doesn’t get arrested but this is where he begins to antagonise the Jews.
In Paul’s time the high priests of the temple were loyal to Rome. It wasn’t until Gessius Florus looted the treasury that the Jews turned against Rome. Paul’s relationship to Judaism depends on what you mean by Judaism.