EMQ » July–September 2021 » Volume 57 Issue 3
By Te-Li Lau
Baker Academic, 2020
288 pages
US$27.99
Reviewed by Jerry Ireland, University of Valley Forge.
In this fascinating study, New Testament scholar Te-Li Lau of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School examines the Pauline use of shame. In doing so, he adds a much-needed layer to our understanding of Paul’s approach to ethical and moral formation.
Lau begins his analysis by setting Paul’s work in the context of Greco-Roman and Jewish concepts of both shame and guilt (two concepts that throughout are interrelated but with important distinctions). In this, he establishes three ways in which shame functions in Greco-Roman moral formation prospectively, retrospectively, and within Aristotelian and Stoic moral formation. Regarding the first of these, education and socialization as taught by leading Greek philosophers play key roles in instilling a concern and regard for prospective shame (for what consequences might follow given certain actions). Retrospective shame serves to guide those who ignore educational and moral guidance via the law and punishment as a means of “shaming the shameless” (58). All of these serve in the attainment of virtue.
To properly set Pauline theology in its Jewish context, Lau offers a survey of Old Testament concepts of shame and also includes Wisdom literature of the Second Temple era (Sirach). Here honor and shame play out in relation to the divine court of opinion but also to less important human courts of opinion. He notes that honor and shame do not function as a zero-sum exchange, such that honoring one does not require shaming another (85–86). Within the divine-human relationship, objective shame leads to subjective feelings of shame meant to bring about repentance. In human relationships, the centrality of community features prominently as the community keeps one another accountable to the divine mandates.
When he comes to the Pauline texts, Lau examines Galatians (Paul’s shaming of both Peter and the Galatians themselves), where Paul’s goal is “Christic formation” (106). Similarly in 1 Corinthians, Paul uses shame in a way contrary to that employed by wandering sophists, in order “highlight the message of the cross” (109). Paul’s diagnosis that the Corinthians had failed to evaluate themselves and therefore must be shamed into remembering their identity in Christ in order to evaluate past and potential future actions.
Next, Lau examines Paul’s prospective use of shame in Philippians and Philemon. In Philippians, for example, (especially the Christ hymn of chapter 2:6–11) Paul employs this form of shame so that the Philippians will imitate Christ in “mindset, affection, and attitude” (129) and will be vindicated (not shamed) at the eschaton. Lau also importantly observes the key role played by the Holy Spirit in Paul’s approach to ethical formation, no less in applying shame constructively (167–170). For Paul, shame also has an important role to play regarding unbelievers, especially as believers hold forth God’s ethical norms through their lifestyle. Ultimately, Paul’s use of shame is “bold, forceful, strong, passionate, and urgent … [but] Paul does not command, manipulate, or coerce, because his primary goal is not just that believers do the right thing, but that they do the right thing for the right reason” (221).
Lau has managed to pack into these 271 pages a robust examination of shame along with related issues such as honor and guilt. Though the work tends to be highly academic (Hebrew and Greek terms are not transliterated), Lau’s book is extremely engaging in that it opens up a seldom discussed aspect of Pauline ethics. In doing so, it moves the study of Paul’s approach to moral formation out of a sometimes overly Western paradigm in which concepts like honor and shame do not always feature prominently. Anyone interested in better understanding discipleship and moral formation in the Pauline corpus stands to benefit from reading this book, even if doing so means wading into occasionally deep academic waters.
