“Apart from These Things I Am Pressured Daily from My Anxiety for All the Churches” (2 Cor 11:28): The Intersection of Paul’s Theology and Pastoral Practice

Abstract:Interest in the letters of Paul the Apostle and in the topic of Pauline theology never seems to wane. Several recent studies have shown promise in pursuing pastoral aspects of Paul’s theology, but apart from passing references that one finds in commentaries and Pauline theologies, and the acknowledgment, even from antiquity, that Paul was a pastor to his communities, there has not been a substantive synthetic “pastoral theology” of Paul that illustrates the intersection of his theology and his pastoral practice as exhibited in his letters. Using examples from Romans, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon, I suggest that such a study shows promise.