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Resurrection and New Creation in Ephesians
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Resurrection and New Creation in Ephesians

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 November 2024) | Viewed by 2661

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. J. David Stark

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
F. Furman Kearley Graduate School of Theology, Faulkner University, Montgomery, AL, USA
Interests: pauline literature; biblical theology; new testament studies

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Ephesians’s engagement with the themes of resurrection and new creation is well known. However, more work remains to be done to describe how these themes run and develop throughout the letter, as well as how they interact with each other.

Consequently, the scope and purpose of this Special Issue is to explore how Ephesians interacts with and develops the themes of resurrection and new creation, as well as the interrelationships that Ephesians creates between these themes and the roles that these themes and their interrelationships play in the letter’s argument. This Special Issue aims to illustrate the variety, regularity, and centrality of Ephesians’s engagement with these core themes as the letter develops them in relation to both Jesus and his followers in various ways (e.g., temporality, ethnicity).

Contributions related to the following topics are welcomed:

  • Texts that explicitly reference resurrection, new creation, or both;
  • Places where the letter might reference either or both of these themes more allusively;
  • How Ephesians connects resurrection and new creation to each other or to other motifs (e.g., inheritance, predestination, promise);
  • Ways in which Ephesians’s development of the themes of resurrection, new creation, or both might relate to another text(s) from the Pauline corpus.

This said, contributions are welcome whether they accept or reject the Pauline authorship of Ephesians, and the list above of possible approaches is intended to be representative rather than exhaustive. Authors are also invited to consider the ways that Ephesians develops the themes of resurrection, new creation, or both beyond those that appear in the examples listed above.

NOTE: Before submitting a manuscript, potential contributors should submit a proposed title and an abstract of 400–600 words summarizing their intended contribution to the Guest Editor ([email protected]) and the Religions editorial office ([email protected]). The Guest Editor will review abstracts for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of this Special Issue. Full manuscripts developed from accepted proposals will undergo double-blind peer review.

Prof. Dr. J. David Stark
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • resurrection
  • new creation
  • Ephesians
  • Paul
  • eschatology

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 327 KiB  
Article
Participating in the New Creation in Ephesians
by Mark J. Keown
Religions 2025, 16(2), 158; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16020158 - 30 Jan 2025
Viewed by 481
Abstract
This article explores Ephesians, asking how the theme of the new creation is developed in Ephesians. Rather than specifying matters like authorship, date, and recipients, it takes a broad view of the situation of the letter so that the focus can be on [...] Read more.
This article explores Ephesians, asking how the theme of the new creation is developed in Ephesians. Rather than specifying matters like authorship, date, and recipients, it takes a broad view of the situation of the letter so that the focus can be on exploring the theme. It argues that the new creation idea is developed in three main ways. First, while Ephesians has a decidedly realized eschatology, there are hints throughout the letter of the consummation when the whole Earth is freed from corruption and reconciled under one head, Jesus Christ. Second, particularly in chapters 1–3, the writer of Ephesians focuses on realized aspects of eschatology to strengthen the readers’ understanding of their identity in Christ and their status as people of the new creation. The writer does this to strengthen the readers to assume the posture of the new creation while living in a fallen world beset with sin and under spiritual powers. In Ephesians 4–6, the writer describes this new creation virtues the readers are to embody as they contend for God in the world. Finally, the article explores the missional appeal of the letter. The writer challenges the readers to embody the new creation ethic and join God’s mission that calls all humankind to believe in the gospel and become people of the new creation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Resurrection and New Creation in Ephesians)
26 pages, 424 KiB  
Article
Until We All Attain the Mature Man: Mapping the Metaphors for Maturity in Ephesians Within Paul’s Greco-Roman Context
by John K. Goodrich
Religions 2025, 16(2), 130; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16020130 - 24 Jan 2025
Viewed by 427
Abstract
One of the central metaphorical themes of Ephesians is maturity, expressed most memorably in 4:13. In this verse, the goal of the church is portrayed as the attainment of the “mature man” (εἰς ἄνδρα τέλειον), the state of completion to which Christ’s corporate [...] Read more.
One of the central metaphorical themes of Ephesians is maturity, expressed most memorably in 4:13. In this verse, the goal of the church is portrayed as the attainment of the “mature man” (εἰς ἄνδρα τέλειον), the state of completion to which Christ’s corporate body is growing until it reaches “the measure of the stature of the fullness” of its head. Despite the clear origin of Paul’s metaphor in the realm of human development, minimal discussion has centered on how Paul’s contemporaries employed the phrase “mature man” (τέλειος ἀνήρ) in relation to other developmental milestones along the commonly conceived life course in Greco-Roman antiquity, and what implications this might have for understanding where in the maturation process Paul would have plotted his implied readers. This investigation explores these contextual matters and then uses the results to cast light on related developmental imagery in the surrounding passages of Ephesians, including not only the human growth terminology in 4:12–16 but also the pedagogical rhetoric in 4:20–21, the allusion to the Roman toga virilis ceremony in 4:22–24, and the military analogy in 6:10–18. Collectively, this metaphorical imagery helps to identify the church’s current stature as that befitting of a young man who has recently come of age and located within the liminal phase of early male adulthood. Explicating the fullness of the maturity metaphor in Ephesians helps to illuminate the thematic coherency of the letter as well as how Paul sought to make his realized eschatology intelligible to his ancient readers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Resurrection and New Creation in Ephesians)
9 pages, 277 KiB  
Article
Renewed Minds and Redeemed Inheritance: Pauline Eschatology in Eph 4:17–32
by James Andrew Kingsley
Religions 2024, 15(12), 1543; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15121543 - 18 Dec 2024
Viewed by 614
Abstract
This article examines the eschatology in Eph 4:17–32 and argues that the section represents an understanding of “inaugurated eschatology” that is consistent with the undisputed letters of Paul. In the letter, believers are called to a metaphorical resurrection from the corruption and ignorance [...] Read more.
This article examines the eschatology in Eph 4:17–32 and argues that the section represents an understanding of “inaugurated eschatology” that is consistent with the undisputed letters of Paul. In the letter, believers are called to a metaphorical resurrection from the corruption and ignorance of the old self (2:1–3; 4:17–22) to a renewed life in the present modeled after the image of God (4:24) and guided by the truth in Jesus (4:21). With minds renewed as such, readers of Ephesians may “discern what is pleasing to the Lord” (5:10) as they “understand what the will of the Lord is” (5:17) in everyday decisions of character and conduct (e.g., 4:25–6:9). The “already” resurrection and renewed mind yet await the “not yet” resurrection of the final day. Indeed, the renewal of the mind anticipates further and final renewal of the whole person (i.e., mind and body) on the future “day of redemption” (4:30)—the day in which the present rising will be made complete as the physical body rises to die no more (cf. 1 Thess 5:2; 4:2; 2 Thess 1:10; 2:2–3; 2 Tim 1:12, 18; 4:8). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Resurrection and New Creation in Ephesians)
14 pages, 605 KiB  
Article
Order, Identity, and the “New Self”: Reading Ephesians Through Social Representations Theory
by William B. Bowes
Religions 2024, 15(12), 1506; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15121506 - 10 Dec 2024
Viewed by 661
Abstract
Social representations theory (SRT) refers to an approach within social psychology focusing on systems of beliefs, concepts, and values that establish social order and allow for individuals and groups to identify and understand themselves vis-à-vis others. It involves the ascription of meaning to [...] Read more.
Social representations theory (SRT) refers to an approach within social psychology focusing on systems of beliefs, concepts, and values that establish social order and allow for individuals and groups to identify and understand themselves vis-à-vis others. It involves the ascription of meaning to phenomena so that the unfamiliar is made familiar, and new concepts are integrated into existing worldviews in an ongoing process of constructing and interpreting social realities. This approach has not yet been applied to any biblical texts, and this article will explore how such an application would prove fruitful for understanding the processes of identification and community formation in early Christian groups, with a specific focus on Ephesians. This study will focus on how the concepts of reconciled differences (Eph 2.11–22) and of the “new self” (Eph 4.17–32) are communicated to the readers. Analyzing these concepts through SRT will elucidate how the author advocates for certain beliefs, concepts, and values as part of the community members’ process of aligning themselves with their newly created self. Reading Ephesians through SRT can better elucidate how the text reflects its enigmatic community, which was being formed and reformed through identification, division, and re-identification in the tumultuous second half of the first century. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Resurrection and New Creation in Ephesians)
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