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3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting parallels, unconvincing arguments., September 14, 2008
This review is from: Cynics, Paul and the Pauline Churches (Hardcover)
In this book, Downing argues five points: (1) Paul would have sounded like a Cynic to people in the 1st Century. (Especially the early Paul -- later he sluffed off into a more respectable Stoicism.) (2) The similarities are so strong that Paul must have been aware of them. (3) Cynicism must have been part of what Paul was about. (Downing is always careful not to go beyond "part.") (4) Some of Paul's audience (in particular the Corinthians) seemed to go beyond Paul in their "Cynical" attitudes. (5) Paul probably found Cynic thought in Christianity already before he converted . . . from Jesus or his first followers (Downing argues elsewhere).
The book is worth reading, though not at this outrageous price! Downing succeeds in showing that there were parallels between Paul and the Cynics, sometimes stronger than with any other ancient school. Paul may indeed have been aware of some of those parallels. The book is carefully written and systematic.
People are, however, adept at finding patterns, and the field of comparative religion is litered with such parallels. Marcus Borg's Jesus and Buddha is a good example: Borg found all sorts of parallels between the Jesus of the Gospels and early Buddhist teachings -- like Cynicism, a broad category rather than a specified individual. Kenneth Leong's The Zen Sayings of Jesus is an even more striking instance -- no one could claim that Jesus went to China, or the first Zen patriarchs visited Palestine, yet Leong finds lots of interesting parallels.
So Downings' thesis needs more than correlation to prove a historical connection. But he cannot provide even a single reference to Cynicism in the NT. The NT often quotes critics accusing Jesus and Paul of all kinds of things -- but never of that form of doggedness.
Furthermore, many of Downings' arguments seem forced to me. He tends to quote a few verses, give them the required spin, and then bring them up over and over again.
NT Wright responds I think pretty well to what Downing says about Jesus in Jesus and the Victory of God, offering some additional points.
What Downing shows is a resemblance, at certain points, between early Christianity and Cynicism. I wouldn't recommend reading this book alone -- read the Cynics themselves, alongside the letters of Paul, then read this book, and make up your own mind about the relationship. My own view (developed in Jesus and the Religions of Man) is that Jesus came not to do away with any human tradition, but to fulfill the deepest truths within each. I think that might explain the facts Downing brings up better than either his or Wright's take on this relationship.
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