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Is Paul a theologian, in the strict and proper sense of the words?

Better: Do Paul's letters express "theology" in the strict and proper sense of the word?

I should say, No, they do not, because what his letters express is witness (direct and indirect), as distinct from theology in the strict and proper sense.

As such, however, they very definitely imply a theology in just this sense; and it is arguable that one task of a properly theological interpretation of the letters would be to make this implied theology explicit.

It is because this is so, of course, that the original question, whether Paul is a theologian in the strict and proper sense, might very well need to be answered affirmatively even though the correct answer to the second, reformulated question is negative.

July 1995