Full Description
A Prolegomenon to the Study of Paul examines foundational assumptions that ground all interpretations of the apostle Paul. This examination touches on several topics, invoking issues pertaining to truth, hermeneutics, canonicity, historiography, pseudonymity, literary genres, and authority. Underlying all of this is a guiding thesis, namely, that every encounter with Paul involves "Pauline Archimedean points," or fixed points of reference that establish the measure for constructing any interpretation of Paul whatsoever. Building on this, the author interrogates various issues that inform the formation of these Pauline Archimedean points, in pursuit of an important but modest goal: to urge Pauline readers to engage in a modicum of self-reflection over the various considerations that precondition all of our efforts to comprehend Paul.
Contents
Contents
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Introduction
1 The Familiar Paul?
2 Mapping the Study
1 ``In a Mirror Dimly''
1 ``Our Knowledge Is Imperfect...'': The Historical Paul, the
Real Paul, and Paulusbilder
2 ``... For Now We See in a Mirror Dimly'': (Self)
Reflections on the Study of Paul
2 Canons and Collections: Considerations on the Formation of a Normative Pauline Archive
1 The Paul of Canon
2 The Concept of Canon
3 The Formation of a Pauline Canon
4 References to Paul by Early Church Fathers
5 Marcion's Relevance to the Pauline Canon
6 Acts
3 The Pauline Archive and the Problem of Pseudonymity
1 Views on Pseudonymity in Antiquity
2 Pseudonymity and New Testament Scholarship
3 Pseudonymity and the Canonical Pauline Archive
4 Interpolations
4 Genre, Intentionality & the Pauline Correspondence
1 The Epistolary Genre
2 ``Real'' Letters or Epistles?: Adolf Deissmann's Distinction
3 Deissmann's Legacy
4 Intentionality and Epistemological Expectations
5 Locating Pauline Authority
1 Canonical Authority
2 Literary Authority
3 Chronological or Historical Authority
4 Apostolic or Charismatic Authority
5 Revelatory Authority
6 Theorizing Pauline Authority
7 The Final Authority
Conclusion: Pauline Anarchivists
Afterword
Glossary of Terms
Bibliography
Index
