Paul, Dialectal not Dualistic (by Richard Rohr)
Often Paul appears to be a dualistic teacher, but actually he is a dialectical teacher. In dialectics we use two different ideas and use them both to overcome their apparent contradictions. Paul often talks in terms of law and freedom, flesh and spirit, nature and grace, weakness and strength, but he is usually not presenting a strict dualism—although we hear him that way because the Western mind is well-trained in dualistic thinking. The nature of a transformed consciousness, however, is that such a mind and heart can deal with paradoxes and seeming contradictions. I call this nondual thinking, contemplation, or even “prayer.” (See my book, The Naked Now.)
Once we know that Paul is speaking from this larger and even mystical level, we will stop trying to pull him down into our either/or mind. We often think he is making a total elimination of one or the other when he really isn’t. Let me use the most problematic issue with Paul’s language of flesh and Spirit, which could appear to be a total dualism between bad and good. The flesh is often another word for the false self or the ego, and the Spirit is certainly the true self that we are in God; yet they both are essential parts of the human self—that God works with and loves! Finally, human life is a dance between the True Self (Spirit) and the false self (the flesh), they both allow and draw from one another. Your false self never fully goes away, nor does it need to. The only problem is when you do not even know that you have a True Self to ground you, draw you forward, pull you deeper, and forgive the very weaknesses of the false self! (Think about that for awhile, please!) This is dialectical thinking at its best, and might even be called wisdom."
(Whether Paul is dualistic or dialectical, we surely have to be dialectical in our understanding of his letters-MH)
