MELACAK KEMBALI METODOLOGI RASUL PAULUS DALAM BERTEOLOGI

Abstract

In fulfilling his ministerial responsibilities, the apostle Paul had to grapple theologically with the problems encountered by gentile believers, problems which, to a large extent, were culturally conditioned. In many cases this involved grappling with issues for which there was no precedents in the Jesus tradition. This task involved having the skills to communicate theological principles to those living in a lively socio-cultural context. The way in which the apostle Paul fulfilled this responsibility raises interesting questions. In fact how the apostle did his theology has been subject to serious study up until now.

Scholars are still left struggling with the complexity of Paul’s way of doing theology. Among many different approaches to understanding Paul’s theology, approach which pays a serious attention to “communication” as the very basic element of Paul’s way of doing theology, has not been explored sufficiently. The most important task is to determine the centre of gravity in the communication. It has been a custom to put the centre of gravity on Paul rather than on the original readers. My article will argue that the centre of gravity should be better put on the addressees rather than on Paul. When it is done it will be apparent that Paul was doing theology inductively rather than deductively.