This post is continued from the previous one here. Here are the last three in this two-part posting. You will find a full exposition of these ideas, chapter by chapter, in my book Paul and Jesus. At the Recently Discovered “Tomb of Paul” in Rome 4) Already but Not Yet.…
One thing historians of religions often emphasize is that no religious tradition is a static monolithic entity. Whether we are talking about Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, or Islam, the varieties and diversity within each tradition as it develops at the beginning, and over time, are rich and complex. Judaism is no…
I want to recommend to my readers this wonderful and important article by David Bentley Hart. I thank my colleague Dr. James Philip Arnold of Reunion Institute in Houston, TX for pointing it out to me. Philip earned his Ph.D. from Rice University and wrote his dissertation on Paul–so he…
What can we reliably know about Paul and how can we know it? As is the case with Jesus this is not an easy question. Historians have been involved in what has been called the “Quest for the Historical Jesus” for the past one hundred and seventy-five years, evaluating and…
I wrote my Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Chicago, on “Paul’s Ascent to Paradise” under the direction of Jonathan Z. Smith, the late and great Robert M. Grant, and Arthur Adkins. Its focus was the celebrated passage where Paul reports his extraordinary experience, as a “man in Christ” who…
It is difficult for one to imagine a version of Christianity pre-dating Paul with none of the core theological affirmations we find in the Apostles Creed. Yet that is precisely what our evidence indicates. The original apostles and followers of Jesus, led by James and assisted by Peter and John, continued…
So a lively and thought provoking attempt to resolve some of the historical problems that Paul poses–yes. But, sadly, tendentiousness and text-selectivity renders most of the thesis increasingly implausible. James D. G. Dunn, who is the Emeritus Lightfoot Professor of Divinity in the department of theology and religion at Durham…
Happily, I come out of a Christian tradition in which the Hebrew Bible carries as much authority as the New Testament. No different weight is given to one or the other. The Bible is one, Old and New, in my particular tradition. My own interest is far more in the…
Yesterday morning in Jerusalem I heard the bells of the Dormition Abbey on Mt Zion and wept thinking of Bob Dylan’s song. Here are some thoughts on the profound lyrics. There are many “Gospels,” many Gods, many Lords, and many Christs. The challenge is sorting them out. Paul refers to…
The New Testament has been the most influential collection of documents in history. Taken by both commoners and those in power as the inspired and infallible “Word of God,” and interpreted ofttimes outside its historical context, its fateful influence has often emerged from single passages with far-ranging consequences: And there…