Agape And Law

The Epistle to the Romans of Paul contains a wealth of theological thoughts,but agape and law and their relationship have been controversial.Ancient Greece civilization,Jewish civilization and Christian civilization each gave birth to different legal culture and erotic culture.Paul lives in these three worlds,which makes him not only can reflect on the concept of justice from ancient Greek in God's love but also innovates and promotes the concept of Jewish law.To explore Paul's view of agape and law and their relationship,in this article,the ancient and modern relation between agape and law in Romans will be transformed into the horizontal axis of time,while Paul and Paul's interpreter will be used as the space axis.Augustine was influenced by the Paul's concept of agape and he combined the love of the Holy Spirit with the will of goodness.Agape can overcome the weakness of human nature and it is the fulfilling of the law.As a result,Augustine pioneered the tradition of Christian "love ethics" and announced the end of "ethics of knowledge" for ancient Greece.Under the influence of Aristotle's philosophy,Aquinas understood the subject of law and grace and agape in Romans from Natural Law.However,His concept of agape has apparently deviated from Augustine's tradition.Luther reversed Aristotle's philosophy and returned to Augustine's tradition through "Justification by faith" and "Sola gratia".The contradiction between agape and law has its own reasons.Aquinas and Gratian are committed to uniting them.The resurrection,the foundation of agape was challenged by The Enlightenment and English Deism.Biblical Criticism developed in this trend of thought and made Ferdinand Christian Baur,the founder of the Tübingen School,separated agape from law by analyzed Paul's opponents.Religionsgeschichtliche has bridged the confrontation and separation between agape and law in the Bauer's tradition.They provide an important topic for the controversy of Paul's view of law and provide transitional conditions for paradigm shift that makes "Luther Paul" turn towards "historical Paul".From Augustine to Luther,Paul was regarded as transcending the love of Christianity with Jewish law,which virtually stabbed the Jewish people's joy for God's law.With the exploration of the history of Jesus and the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls,Sanders was influenced by Davis and Stendahl and he redefined Palestine's Judaism to combat Bauer'stradition of Paul's opponents.He proposed "convenantal nomism" and pointed out that Augustine and Luther compared their situation in sin with Paul who didn't suffer from sin,which was not corresponded to the image of "historical Paul".In addition,in the context of Catholicism's emphasis on good work,Luther's salvation by the law of the Jewish religion was also contrary to the belief of the Jews that the law was good and brought joy.The Jews didn't suffer from the law and the law was not the weight of their entry into God's covenant and salvation,but the basis for their maintenance in the covenant.As a result,Paul is seen as misunderstanding his opponent.Under the influence of "the Saunders Revolution",The New Perspective on Paul reintegrates the opposition and separation between agape and law of Bauer's traditional only in the Jewish context.To insist the traditional point of view of agape and law,the supporters of the "Luther Paul" launched a fierce battle against the "historical Paul".Their healthy and nervous debates and dialogues presents the traditions of "Agape" and "Law" of the ancient Greek,Christian and Jewish,they also bring icing on the cake to Paul's research.