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Author: Richard Last
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2016
Total Pages: 281
ISBN-13: 1107100631
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis innovative volume is the first English-language monograph to compare Paul's Corinthian church with contemporary cult groups from Mediterranean antiquity.
Author: Young-Ho Park
Publisher: Mohr Siebeck
Published: 2015-04-21
Total Pages: 284
ISBN-13: 9783161530609
DOWNLOAD EBOOKHow did Paul's term ekklesia formulate the Christian self-understanding? Young-Ho Park finds the answer in its strong civic connotation in the politico-cultural world of the Greek East under the Roman Empire. By addressing his local Gentile congregation as ekklesia in his letters, Paul effectively created a symbolic universe in which the Christ-worshippers saw themselves as the honorable citizens who represented the city before God. (Publisher).
Author: Corin Mihaila
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2009-06-25
Total Pages: 274
ISBN-13: 056762823X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKResearch into the social and rhetorical background of the Corinthian church, shows that the Corinthians were evaluating their leaders based on their rhetorical prowess, seeking to associate with those who would enhance their status and honour. The coherence of Paul's argument in 1 Corinthians 1-4 is evaluated, particularly by showing how Paul's discourse of the cross and Sophia relate to the issue of the dissensions in the Corinthian ekklesia. Once demonstrated that there is a misunderstanding of wisdom amongst church leaders at the basis of the dissensions, a redefinition of the wisdom offered in Corinthians is required. In what could be considered the locus of Paul's theology of proclamation (i.e., 1 Corinthians 2:1-5), he rejects any employment of worldly wisdom in his proclamation of the cross for theological reasons and will not allow himself or other leaders to be drawn into this game of personality cult and honour enhancement. Such conclusions then raise the question of the role played by Apollos' name in Paul's argument against dissensions. After a review of several possible views, it is concluded-based primarily on exegetical grounds and refusing to engage in hermeneutical speculations-that Paul had a congenial relationship with Apollos. If any distinction is drawn between the two, it was solely the Corinthians' fault, who viewed their preachers in competitive rather than complementary terms.
Author: William S. Campbell
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2008-04-03
Total Pages: 218
ISBN-13: 0567184242
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn the dominant interpretation of the Antioch incident Paul is viewed as separating from Peter and Jewish Christianity to lead his own independent mission which was eventually to triumph in the creation of a church with a gentile identity. Paul's gentile mission, however, represented only one strand of the Christ movement but has been universalized to signify the whole. The consequence of this view of Paul is that the earliest diversity in which he operated and which he affirmed has been anachronistically diminished almost to the point of obliteration. There is little recognition of the Jewish form of Christianity and that Paul by and large related positively to it as evidenced in Romans 14-15. Here Paul acknowledges Jewish identity as an abiding reality rather than as a temporary and weak form of faith in Christ. This book argues that diversity in Christ was fundamental to Paul and that particularly in his ethical guidance this received recognition. Paul's relation to Judaism is best understood not as a reaction to his former faith but as a transformation resulting from his vision of Christ. In this the past is not obliterated but transformed and thus continuity is maintained so that the identity of Christianity is neither that of a new religion nor of a Jesus cult. In Christ the past is reconfigured and thus the diversity of humanity continues within the church, which can celebrate the richness of differing identities under the Lordship of Christ.
Author: Richard Last
Publisher:
Published: 2015
Total Pages: 282
ISBN-13: 9781316421208
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis innovative volume is the first English-language monograph to compare Paul's Corinthian church with contemporary cult groups from Mediterranean antiquity.
Author: Ryan S. Schellenberg
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2022-05-05
Total Pages: 564
ISBN-13: 0567691993
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe T&T Clark Handbook to the Historical Paul gathers leading voices on various aspects of Paul's biography into a thorough reconsideration of him as a historical figure. The contributors show how recent trends in Pauline scholarship have invited new questions about a variety of topics, including his social location, his mode of subsistence, his cultural formation, his place within Judaism, his religious experience and practice, and his affinities with other religious actors of the Roman world. Through careful attention to biographical detail, social context, and historical method, it seeks to describe him as a contextually plausible social actor. The volume is structured in three parts. Part One introduces sources, methods, and historiographical approaches, surveying the foundational texts for Paul and the early Pauline tradition. Part Two examines key biographical questions pertaining to Paul's bodily comportment, the material aspects of his career, and his religious activities. Part Three reconstructs the biographical portraits of Paul that emerge from the letters associated with him, presenting a series of “micro-biographies” pieced together by leading Pauline scholars.
Author: Christopher B. Zeichmann
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Published: 2023-04-01
Total Pages: 449
ISBN-13: 0228017726
DOWNLOAD EBOOKPaul the apostle is usually imagined as a man of prestige and power – comfortably conversing with philosophers, seeking an audience with the emperor, and composing compelling letters for Christians throughout the Mediterranean. Yet this portrait of a safe and conventional figure at the origins of Christianity airbrushes out many strange things about him. This volume repositions Paul as a man at the periphery of power. Recovering an Undomesticated Apostle explores the ways that Paul has been “domesticated” in both popular and scholarly imagination. By isolating selected crises of the apostle’s life and legacy and examining the social and material dimensions of his world, these essays collectively chip away at the received image of his strength and status. The result is a series of glimpses of Paul that frame the apostle as surprisingly marginal and weak within Roman society. Published in honour of New Testament scholar Leif E. Vaage, Recovering an Undomesticated Apostle presents Paul as a man operating from a position of desperation, making virtue out of necessity as he attempted to claw his way up in the dog-eat-dog world of the ancient Mediterranean.
Author: Anna C. Miller
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Published: 2015-05-04
Total Pages: 255
ISBN-13: 1498270646
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn this innovative study, Anna Miller challenges prevailing New Testament scholarship that has largely dismissed the democratic civic assembly--the ekklēsia--as an institution that retained real authority in the first century CE. Using an interdisciplinary approach, she examines a range of classical and early imperial sources to demonstrate that ekklēsia democracy continued to saturate the eastern Roman Empire, widely impacting debates over authority, gender, and speech. In the first letter to the Corinthians, she demonstrates that Paul's persuasive rhetoric is itself shaped and constrained by the democratic discourse he shares with his Corinthian audience. Miller argues that these first-century Corinthians understood their community as an authoritative democratic assembly in which leadership and "citizenship" cohered with the public speech and discernment open to each. This Corinthian identity illuminates struggles and debates throughout the letter, including those centered on leadership, community dynamics, and gender. Ultimately, Miller's study offers new insights into the tensions that inform Paul's letter. In turn, these insights have critical implications for the dialogue between early Judaism and Hellenism, the study of ancient politics and early Christianity, and the place of gender in ancient political discourse.
Author: Dale B. Martin
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2017-02-21
Total Pages: 408
ISBN-13: 0300227914
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA leading biblical scholar’s landmark work challenges the historical realism that has dominated the discipline for more than two centuries How can a modern person, informed by science and history, continue to recite the traditional creeds and confessions of the Christian church? What does the Bible mean and how do we verify biblical truths? In this groundbreaking book, a leading biblical scholar urges readers to be more creative interpreters of biblical texts, mapping out an alternative way of reading that is not first and foremost about understanding what those texts would have meant for the original authors and readers. Limiting our study to the ancient meaning of the text, he argues, has produced either bad history, or bad theology, or both. One cannot derive robustly orthodox Christian doctrine or theology from a mere “historical” interpretation of the Bible. Martin offers instead theological readings of the New Testament that are faithful to Christian orthodoxy as generally understood, but without attempting a “foundationalist” understanding of the meaning of the text. His provocative and ambitious book demonstrates how theology and scripture can remain vital in the twenty-first century.
Author: Howard R. Stewart
Publisher: University Press of America
Published: 1997
Total Pages: 132
ISBN-13: 9780761806530
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis is a theological and historical discussion about how American Baptists can reclaim a lost concept of the church and implement it to solve contemporary problems. Uniquely addressed to American Baptist Churches, USA, the issues discussed are also being addressed in other Baptist groups throughout the world. It is the author's hope that this book will accurately inform people as to what Baptists once believed and practiced about the church of Jesus Christ at both the local and associational levels. Contents: Preface; Introduction: We Have a Problem; Baptist Beginnings; Why Baptists Practice Congregationalism; Early American Baptists and The Church; The Associationist Principle; Baptist Associational Life in Early America; The Decline of The Association; The Changing Scene in The Twentieth Century; Conclusion: Steps to Recovery; Sources Consulted; Index; Biographical Sketch of Author.
