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I admit – I enjoy a good historical drama mixed with a lot of science fiction. While not exactly the same, Gombis is highlighting the idea of cosmic warfare in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. He notes that when one god defeated another, the people would set up shop in the national deity’s temple. Paul is using, according to Gombis, the same backdrop in Ephesians.
He writes,
Paul dramatically transforms this notion, however, because it is not that God’s people gather at the temple to celebrate God’s victory in Jesus. The church gathers as the temple of the victorious Christ Jesus…. In this sense, then, the church also functions as a lasting monument to the victory of God in Christ over the powers. (p104)
Are we really serving as that monument? Do we still have the same authority, the same standard? Do we still have the same mission? Or maybe, are we still carrying out that mission in the manner desired by our glorious victor?
Joel L. Watts holds a Masters of Arts from United Theological Seminary with a focus in literary and rhetorical criticism of the New Testament. His interests include exploring the role of mimesis in human civilization, specifically in the study of religion and media, as well as science fiction and the way in which it has allowed mythology to be explored in light of scientific discoveries of the past century. He is the author of Mimetic Criticism of the Gospel of Mark: Introduction and Commentary (Wipf and Stock, 2013) and a co-editor and contributor to From Fear to Faith: Stories of Hitting Spiritual Walls (Energion, 2013).
Website: → Unsettled Christianity
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