CHAPTER III
THE TEACHING OF ST. PAUL
If it be important in studying the Gospels to remember that they are neither codes of law nor casuistic treatises, it is hardly less important in reading the Epistles to remember that they are always occasional documents called forth by special circumstances, and only rightly understood when those circumstances are clearly kept in mind. In some sense we may say of the Apostolic writings that they were designed to serve the purposes of legal codes and casuistic manuals in the churches to which they were addressed; but, even so, legislation and casuistry are, in the nature of things, contingent and provisional. Neither, therefore, can rightly be clothed with the attributes of unalterableness and perpetual obligation. It is mere matter of fact that
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