DET

[The series continues and now concludes the fourth in-person session.  Find the last post here .]   We saw, when we were talking about Luther, that Galatians is all about freedom of conscience. Calvin reads it very much the same way but focuses on the question of culture. For Calvin, you can't impose one culture on another culture. Now, unfortunately, there’s a tradition of interpretation within Protestant readings of Galatians that focuses on the idea of freedom and thinks about it in terms of freedom from the law. It draws a contrast with Judaism where Judaism is supposed to be characterized by servitude to the law and Paul’s vision of Christianity in Galatians is supposed to be characterized by freedom from the law and from Judaism. I think we’re all on the same page at this point about that way of framing things being problematic. But that doesn’t mean Galatians isn’t about freedom. I think it's certainly true that Paul wants to focus on the freedom of Gentile Jesus-fo...