lly and primarily a founder and leader of new churches. He was not a systematic theologian sitting in a university developing a comprehensive and consistent theological and spiritual system. Instead, he was a missionary responding to a variety of individual churches, controversies, questions, problems, and events.
Looked at in this context, what is available to us in thinking about Paul's theology and spirituality? What is available is a series of letters--correspondence to various individuals and churches that are new and growing, forming Christianity as they develop.
One of the more interesting recent attempts to understand Pauline thought is the compilation by Pauline scholars that focused on the letter of Romans. In this compilation, scholars looked at Pauline thought through this single lens, not trying to compare it to other letters or search for inconsistencies and contradictions. Instead, they examined Pauline thought as it worked itself out in the attempt to help the new community solve its problems and develop more fully as a Christian community (Bassler et al., 1995). It is that approach that seems most fruitful in attempting to understand Paul's view of apostolic spirituality. The focus is not on ensuring that all passages chosen conform to each other, but that each represents one of Paul's attempts to help the congregations work out their problems and continue their development.
A Definition of Apostolic spirituality:
The contemporary focus on spirituality as somehow in opposition to religion, or different from religion, and improved, has not been the understanding of the Christian church for most of its existence. Although Paul himself did not develop a concept of "spirituality" as we think of it, he expressed the elements of it as those qualities and characteristics that the individual would cultivate in order to live a Christian life. Christian spirituality is individual, but it is also fundamenta...