What's the Problem with Grace?

In his book Paul and the Gift, professor John Barclay does something that needed to be done a long time ago, set the idea of a gift, or GRACE, within its social-historical setting.  Why is this important, because all of us tend to use the word within our own modern contemporary thought-world.  However, we know that each culture has customs that are different from the others, and we need explanations of those customs in their cultural situatedness in order to grasp their intended meaning.   Otherwise we aren't communicating.

Let me give you a real world example of this from American to European culture (at least some of the Europeans that I have encountered).  When it is someone's birthday in America and you are going out to dinner with them, the friends usually chip in and pay for the person who's birthday it is.  However, some of my European friends tell me that on their birthday they have to pay the entire check, for everyone.  The same invitation in two different contemporary cultures takes on a different meaning based on cultural expectation.  

So when Paul uses the word gift [grace], his original hearers understood it to mean something which was probably different than how we understand it today.  Therefore, Professor Barclay has done us all a service with his book,  by helping us go back into their world to understand the meaning of gift.  However, this book was written for the specialist in mind, and would put most people to sleep.  Therefore, I heartily encourage you to take the time to listen to this podcast where he talks about his book and some of the issues surrounding it.  I know it helped me.