Critique of The Churches the Apostle Left Behind Written By Raymond Edward Brown - Book Report/Review Example

Critique of the Book d “The Churches the Apostle Left Behind” By Raymond Edward Brown Introduction Raymond Edward Brown was a distinguished Roman Catholic biblical scholar and a priest. He had the honours of being the first Roman Catholic professor to be invited to give sprunt lectures at Union Theological Seminary. Brown taught at the Union Theological Seminary for 29 years as an emeritus professor in New York. Brown is well known for his rigorous examination of the gospel books and further as a prolific author of 35 books. The author is recognized as the first catholic scholar to employ historical- critical method to analysis the bible. Apart from his book titled, “The Churches the Apostle Left Behind," notable influential books by Brown include, “Community of the Beloved Disciple” and “ Antioch and Rome ” that he co-authored with John P. Meler. The book “The Churches the Apostle Left Behind” is a collection of the author’s sprunt lectures at the Union Theological Seminary from January 28-31 in 1980 covering Pauline heritage, heritage of the beloved disciples and the heritage of the Jews and gentiles. Unlike his previous books that were primarily intended for the catholic bishops and believers, “The Churches the Apostle Left Behind” main audience was the protestant scholars as was asserted by the author. Summary In this book, Brown’s primary focus was to examine the nature and structure of the early church and the objectives that were set forth by the apostles. In particular, chapters 1 – 4 highlight the nature of the heritage that the apostles affiliated the church with during the sub-apostolic era in the New Testament. In chapter 1, the author looks at the sub-apostolic, apostolic, post-apostolic era, and the wrongful assigning of authors of the gospels to the affiliated apostles. The author thus defines the apostolic age as the second one-third of the first century and the sub-apostolic era as the last one-third of the same century. He further relates the post-apostolic age to the period when Christians independently began authoring their individual authority in relation to the gospels as opposed to relating them with the apostles after their deaths. The second chapter discusses the Pauline heritage in relation to the pastoral letters to Timothy and Titus. In his arguments, brown documents that the letters to Timothy and Titus underlined the pastoral role of Paul diverting from the previous missionary role. The apostle is more concerned with the structure of the church and preservation of the existing church believers than missionary work. The contents of the letters highly underscore the relevance and significance of organized leadership and obedience to authority of the church. The fundamental objective of Pauls teaching in the letters was to safeguard the survival of the believers. Chapter 3 underpins Christ as the body of the church. The author addresses Pauline’s heritage in the Colossians and Ephesians by offering apostolic guidance that expound on the concept of Christ’s body and its relation to the church. Brown argues that Paul resorts to likening the church to Christ’s body to one, justify the difference in charisma and secondly to exhibit that Christ is the head of the church together with the inherent qualities such as love and holiness. The fourth chapter indicates Pauline’s heritage in the books of Luke and Acts. Brown asserts that the author of the two books is highly preoccupied with the Holy Spirits and the role of the Holy Ghost in the church. The role of the Holy Spirits is given profound significance in relation to the life of Jesus Christ and the growth and development of the church. The reception of the spirit is regarded as definitional step to becoming a believer and subsequently apostles are shown to have been hugely guided and protected by the Holy Spirit. However, Brown’s assertion that the sub-apostolic era was characterised with different Pauline churches as indicated in the book is ill-founded and not evidence based. Koinonia of the Earlier Believers Browns arguments for the existence of Pauline churches during the sub-apostolic period are erroneous based on the varied principle teachings of timothy and Titus, Colossians and Ephesians and Luke and acts. However, examination of the lives of the earlier Christians indicates a common religious fellowship termed by Paul, as Koinonia. According to acts 4:32, “all believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had." Brown’s assertion of varied Pauline teachings in the identified books is factual; however, it would amount to a critical fallacy to relate association of one group of believers with the Holy Spirit and another group with Christ’s body as division in the early church. Conclusive evidence of the Koinonia between distinctive believers of the gospels only goes further to reiterate the diversity of the early church stemming from the background of their apostolic leader. It would hence suffice to mention that the difference that existed in the subapostolic church was in the form of fellowship subgroups. These subgroups included Hebraic Jews, Hellenized Jews, Judaism converts, Samaritans and the Ethiopians Jews. Unity of Kerygma of Acts and the Didache of Paul Subsequently, Brown’s thesis is chiefly pegged on his flawed examination of the content being addressed in the gospels and epistles. In his book, Brown noted explicit discontinuity between the contents of Timothy, Colossians and acts. However, the pinnacle of the gospel that is the church remains the centrality of the message being communicated. In the same manner, one can argue that there exists unprecedented unity of kerygma of Acts and the Didache of Paul. Paul out rightly declares Jesus Christ as the fountain of Christianity and the epistles further indicates overwhelming correlation of Paul’s teaching and the traditions of Jesus Christ. Similarly, the teachings of Luke according to Acts synergize with the doctrines in the Romans, Ephesians and Colossians by Paul. Unified teachings evidence this unity of essentials between the two apostles on death separation, Jesus as the lord and saviour and baptism through faith Paul and Luke. Therefore, in essence, the church was united despite the divergent backgrounds of the apostles. Logic of Argument Another key critique of Brown’s book is his logic of arguments in support of the thesis statement. The author employs inductive form of reasoning where he generalizes his premises on Pauline’s heritage on the entire church of the sub-apostolic era. Inductive reasoning presents a crucial limitation on the subsequent conclusion. Conclusion of inductive reasoning is regarded as a prediction or conjecture of the premises thus additional evidence may support or discredit the conclusion. It hence follows that browns conclusion on the nature and extent of the sub-apostolic church is subject to further research and evidence that may deny the credibility of an already established conclusion. His generalization of the identified Pauline heritage in the form of pastoral objective in timothy and Titus, body of Christ in Colossians and Ephesians and the holy spirit in the book of acts offer little representation and situational evidence of different churches in the sub-apostolic period in the history of the gospel. Conclusion In an attempt to examine the sub-apostolic church, Brown’s assertion that the early Pauline church had different segments on the basis of Pauline heritage adopted by the believers was flawed and highly misleading. Despite the author’s failure to effectively present evidence and expert opinion to support his thesis, the book presented informative account and exposition of the sub-apostolic era. However, Brown failed to link the intended thesis of the book with the presented arguments and facts reasonably. First, the arguments contradicted with the Koinonia of the earlier believers as witnessed by apostle Paul himself, and similarly the unity of the sub-apostolic church based on the Kerygma of Acts and the Didache of Paul further discredited the thesis. Additional criticism of the book was based on the framework of the argument that was highly pegged on inductive reasoning by the author. These limitations notwithstanding, the book still carries pertinent significance to the protestant scholars in terms of the historical background of sub-apostolic church and the authors of the gospels and epistles of Paul. I would strongly recommend the book for training clergymen due to its centrist approach on biblical analysis. Bibliography Brown, Raymond Edward. The Churches the Apostles Left Behind. New York: Paulist Press, 1984. Read More