Cosmology and Self in the Apostle Paul

Cosmology and Self in the Apostle Paul

Author: Troels Engberg-Pedersen

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2010-11-04

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 019161579X

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Cosmology and Self in the Apostle Paul challenges the traditional reading of Paul. Troels Engberg-Pedersen argues that the usual, mainly cognitive and metaphorical, ways of understanding central Pauline concepts, such as 'being in Christ', 'having God's pneuma (spirit), Christ's pneuma, and Christ himself in one', must be supplemented by a literal understanding that directly reflects Paul's cosmology. Engberg-Pedersen shows that Paul's cosmology, not least his understanding of the pneuma, was a materialist, bodily one: the pneuma was a physical element that would at the resurrection act directly on the ordinary human bodies of believers and transform them into 'pneumatic bodies'. This literal understanding of the future events is then traced back to the Pauline present as Engberg-Pedersen considers how Paul conceived in bodily terms of a range of central themes like his own conversion, his mission, the believers' reception of the pneuma in baptism, and the way the apostle took the pneuma to inform his own and their ways of life from the beginning to the projected end. In developing this picture of Paul's world view, an explicitly philosophically oriented form of interpretation ('philosophical exegesis') is employed, in which the interpreter applies categories of interpretation that make sense philosophically, whether in an ancient or a modern context. For this enterprise Engberg-Pedersen draws in particular on ancient Stoic materialist and monistic physics and cosmology - as opposed to the Platonic, immaterialist and dualistic categories that underlie traditional readings of Paul - and on modern ideas on 'religious experience', 'self', 'body' and 'practice' derived from Foucault and Bourdieu. In this way Paul is shown to have spelled out philosophically his Jewish, 'apocalyptic' world view, which remains a central feature of his thought. The book states the cosmological case for the author's earlier 'ethical' reading of Paul in his prize-winning book, Paul and the Stoics (2000).


Book Synopsis Cosmology and Self in the Apostle Paul by : Troels Engberg-Pedersen

Download or read book Cosmology and Self in the Apostle Paul written by Troels Engberg-Pedersen and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2010-11-04 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cosmology and Self in the Apostle Paul challenges the traditional reading of Paul. Troels Engberg-Pedersen argues that the usual, mainly cognitive and metaphorical, ways of understanding central Pauline concepts, such as 'being in Christ', 'having God's pneuma (spirit), Christ's pneuma, and Christ himself in one', must be supplemented by a literal understanding that directly reflects Paul's cosmology. Engberg-Pedersen shows that Paul's cosmology, not least his understanding of the pneuma, was a materialist, bodily one: the pneuma was a physical element that would at the resurrection act directly on the ordinary human bodies of believers and transform them into 'pneumatic bodies'. This literal understanding of the future events is then traced back to the Pauline present as Engberg-Pedersen considers how Paul conceived in bodily terms of a range of central themes like his own conversion, his mission, the believers' reception of the pneuma in baptism, and the way the apostle took the pneuma to inform his own and their ways of life from the beginning to the projected end. In developing this picture of Paul's world view, an explicitly philosophically oriented form of interpretation ('philosophical exegesis') is employed, in which the interpreter applies categories of interpretation that make sense philosophically, whether in an ancient or a modern context. For this enterprise Engberg-Pedersen draws in particular on ancient Stoic materialist and monistic physics and cosmology - as opposed to the Platonic, immaterialist and dualistic categories that underlie traditional readings of Paul - and on modern ideas on 'religious experience', 'self', 'body' and 'practice' derived from Foucault and Bourdieu. In this way Paul is shown to have spelled out philosophically his Jewish, 'apocalyptic' world view, which remains a central feature of his thought. The book states the cosmological case for the author's earlier 'ethical' reading of Paul in his prize-winning book, Paul and the Stoics (2000).


Cosmic Christology in Paul and the Pauline School

Cosmic Christology in Paul and the Pauline School

Author: Geurt Hendrik van Kooten

Publisher: Mohr Siebeck

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 9783161480072

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"How did the understanding of Jesus as the universal Son of Man of Apocalyptic Judaism develop into the notion of a cosmic god, the cosmic Christ? George van Kooten traces the earliest encounters between antiquity and Christianity."


Book Synopsis Cosmic Christology in Paul and the Pauline School by : Geurt Hendrik van Kooten

Download or read book Cosmic Christology in Paul and the Pauline School written by Geurt Hendrik van Kooten and published by Mohr Siebeck. This book was released on 2003 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "How did the understanding of Jesus as the universal Son of Man of Apocalyptic Judaism develop into the notion of a cosmic god, the cosmic Christ? George van Kooten traces the earliest encounters between antiquity and Christianity."


The Emergence of Sin

The Emergence of Sin

Author: Matthew Croasmun

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 019027798X

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We can have a sense that when we try to do right by one another, we aren't merely striving against ourselves. The feeling is that we are struggling against something--someone-else. As if there's a force-a person- that wishes us ill. In his letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul describes just such a person: Sin, a cosmic tyrant who constrains our moral freedom, confuses our moral judgment, and condemns us to slavery and to death. Commentators have long argued about whether Paul literally means to say Sin is a person or is simply indulging in literary personification, but regardless of Paul's intentions, for modern readers it would seem clear enough: there is no such thing as a cosmic tyrant. Surely it is more reasonable to suppose "Sin" is merely a colorful way of describing individual misdeeds or, at most, a way of evoking the intractability of our social ills. In The Emergence of Sin, Matthew Croasmun suggests we take another look. The vision of Sin he offers is at once scientific and theological, social and individual, corporeal and mythological. He argues both that the cosmic power Sin is nothing more than an emergent feature of a vast human network of transgression and that this power is nevertheless real, personal, and one whom we had better be ready to resist. Ultimately, what is on offer here is an account of the world re-mythologized at the hands of chemists, evolutionary biologists, sociologists, and entomologists. In this world, Paul's text is not a relic of a forgotten mythical past, but a field manual for modern living.


Book Synopsis The Emergence of Sin by : Matthew Croasmun

Download or read book The Emergence of Sin written by Matthew Croasmun and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We can have a sense that when we try to do right by one another, we aren't merely striving against ourselves. The feeling is that we are struggling against something--someone-else. As if there's a force-a person- that wishes us ill. In his letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul describes just such a person: Sin, a cosmic tyrant who constrains our moral freedom, confuses our moral judgment, and condemns us to slavery and to death. Commentators have long argued about whether Paul literally means to say Sin is a person or is simply indulging in literary personification, but regardless of Paul's intentions, for modern readers it would seem clear enough: there is no such thing as a cosmic tyrant. Surely it is more reasonable to suppose "Sin" is merely a colorful way of describing individual misdeeds or, at most, a way of evoking the intractability of our social ills. In The Emergence of Sin, Matthew Croasmun suggests we take another look. The vision of Sin he offers is at once scientific and theological, social and individual, corporeal and mythological. He argues both that the cosmic power Sin is nothing more than an emergent feature of a vast human network of transgression and that this power is nevertheless real, personal, and one whom we had better be ready to resist. Ultimately, what is on offer here is an account of the world re-mythologized at the hands of chemists, evolutionary biologists, sociologists, and entomologists. In this world, Paul's text is not a relic of a forgotten mythical past, but a field manual for modern living.


Paul and the Self

Paul and the Self

Author: J. Knox Chamblin

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2011-07-21

Total Pages: 287

ISBN-13: 161097445X

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""An outstanding contribution to the subjects of intra- and interpersonal relations is the work done by J. Knox Chamblin, Paul and the Self. The author has studied every Pauline passage relating to the self and arranged his findings so as to enrich our understanding of a holistic personal maturity as well as a holistic corporate maturity. The serious Bible student should have this book."" --J. Grant Howard, author of The Trauma of Transparency (1997)


Book Synopsis Paul and the Self by : J. Knox Chamblin

Download or read book Paul and the Self written by J. Knox Chamblin and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2011-07-21 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ""An outstanding contribution to the subjects of intra- and interpersonal relations is the work done by J. Knox Chamblin, Paul and the Self. The author has studied every Pauline passage relating to the self and arranged his findings so as to enrich our understanding of a holistic personal maturity as well as a holistic corporate maturity. The serious Bible student should have this book."" --J. Grant Howard, author of The Trauma of Transparency (1997)


The Spirit, New Creation, and Christian Identity

The Spirit, New Creation, and Christian Identity

Author: Grant Buchanan

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2023-05-18

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 0567709280

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Considering the importance of pneumatological themes for interpreting Paul's argument of Galatians, Grant Buchanan explores how Paul draws from Jewish traditions of creation and the Spirit and presents a fresh cosmogony to the Galatian church. He suggests that Galatians outlines an epistemological shift in how Paul sees past, present, and future reality in light of Christ and the presence of the Spirit in the lives of the believers. The most crucial aspect of this new cosmogony is the centrality of the Spirit in Paul's argument in Galatians 3:1–6:17, with Buchanan's exegesis revealing that the Spirit, the Galatians' identity as children of God and the new creation motif are not merely elements of Paul's argument but intrinsic to it. Buchanan demonstrates that Paul renders Jewish and Gentile identities no longer valid, instead revealing that God's favour and election is already with them by stating that those who have the promised Spirit are all children of God. He examines Jewish biblical and Second Temple extra-biblical texts that explicitly connect the Spirit to creation themes, including Genesis, Ezekiel, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Wisdom of Solomon. Taking Galatians 6:11–17 as the body-closing of the letter, the new creation motif directly implies the activity of the Spirit in the creation of Christian identity. Analysing 6:15 from this pneumatological perspective, Buchanan argues that the new creation motif represents a key aspect of Paul's generative cosmogony and pneumatology, indicating a far broader socio-cosmic transformation than previously assumed, and it becomes a key to understanding Paul's argument.


Book Synopsis The Spirit, New Creation, and Christian Identity by : Grant Buchanan

Download or read book The Spirit, New Creation, and Christian Identity written by Grant Buchanan and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2023-05-18 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Considering the importance of pneumatological themes for interpreting Paul's argument of Galatians, Grant Buchanan explores how Paul draws from Jewish traditions of creation and the Spirit and presents a fresh cosmogony to the Galatian church. He suggests that Galatians outlines an epistemological shift in how Paul sees past, present, and future reality in light of Christ and the presence of the Spirit in the lives of the believers. The most crucial aspect of this new cosmogony is the centrality of the Spirit in Paul's argument in Galatians 3:1–6:17, with Buchanan's exegesis revealing that the Spirit, the Galatians' identity as children of God and the new creation motif are not merely elements of Paul's argument but intrinsic to it. Buchanan demonstrates that Paul renders Jewish and Gentile identities no longer valid, instead revealing that God's favour and election is already with them by stating that those who have the promised Spirit are all children of God. He examines Jewish biblical and Second Temple extra-biblical texts that explicitly connect the Spirit to creation themes, including Genesis, Ezekiel, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Wisdom of Solomon. Taking Galatians 6:11–17 as the body-closing of the letter, the new creation motif directly implies the activity of the Spirit in the creation of Christian identity. Analysing 6:15 from this pneumatological perspective, Buchanan argues that the new creation motif represents a key aspect of Paul's generative cosmogony and pneumatology, indicating a far broader socio-cosmic transformation than previously assumed, and it becomes a key to understanding Paul's argument.


Christ, Creation and the Cosmic Goal of Redemption

Christ, Creation and the Cosmic Goal of Redemption

Author: J.J. Johnson Leese

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2018-05-17

Total Pages: 245

ISBN-13: 056768475X

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J. J. Johnson Leese discusses how the apostle Paul's writing on Christ's relationship to creation, read alongside the interpretations of Irenaeus of Lyon, provide a meaningful contribution to contemporary debates on the interrelationship between religion and nature. Leese draws upon the integration of three related scholarly trends – the increased importance placed on biblical creation themes, the emergence of ecotheology, and the history of reception – while focusing on the Pauline corpus and readings of Paul by Irenaeus, thus uncovering a robust creation and ecotheological theology. Irenaeus' approach provides the possibility for Paul to contribute to ecotheology, by way of a theological vision where the whole of reality in relationship to Christ and creation and by extension, to soteriology and ecclesiology, are central components of Paul's theology.


Book Synopsis Christ, Creation and the Cosmic Goal of Redemption by : J.J. Johnson Leese

Download or read book Christ, Creation and the Cosmic Goal of Redemption written by J.J. Johnson Leese and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2018-05-17 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: J. J. Johnson Leese discusses how the apostle Paul's writing on Christ's relationship to creation, read alongside the interpretations of Irenaeus of Lyon, provide a meaningful contribution to contemporary debates on the interrelationship between religion and nature. Leese draws upon the integration of three related scholarly trends – the increased importance placed on biblical creation themes, the emergence of ecotheology, and the history of reception – while focusing on the Pauline corpus and readings of Paul by Irenaeus, thus uncovering a robust creation and ecotheological theology. Irenaeus' approach provides the possibility for Paul to contribute to ecotheology, by way of a theological vision where the whole of reality in relationship to Christ and creation and by extension, to soteriology and ecclesiology, are central components of Paul's theology.


Earthing the Cosmic Christ of Ephesians--The Universe, Trinity, and Zhiyi's Threefold Truth, Volume 2

Earthing the Cosmic Christ of Ephesians--The Universe, Trinity, and Zhiyi's Threefold Truth, Volume 2

Author: John P. Keenan

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2022-09-09

Total Pages: 421

ISBN-13: 1666708526

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This is volume 2 of a wide-ranging interfaith reading of the Letter to the Ephesians—a New Testament text whose words have inspired and enhanced Christian spiritual life and liturgy over the centuries. Unfortunately, at the same time, Ephesians has provided apparent scriptural support to those who would defend slavery, patriarchy, misogyny, and the physical power of Christ over the cosmos. How on earth are today’s Christians to receive and understand such a text as this? Earthing the Cosmic Christ of Ephesians: The Universe, Trinity, and Zhiyi’s Threefold Truth draws upon a broad array of scientific, theological, and philosophical thinkers who enable us both to marvel at today’s ever-expanding knowledge of our vast cosmos and to appreciate the importance of the Ephesian letter in the canon of our Christian scriptures, even while we acknowledge the archaic geocentric cosmology that underlies its claims about the cosmic Christ and reject its accommodation to the patriarchal, misogynistic, and slaveholding norms of its first-century culture. Throughout this reading of Ephesians, we look to Chinese Buddhist master Zhiyi and his “threefold truth” to enhance our understanding of trinity and the nascent trinitarian themes within this letter. As a whole, this work constitutes a new appreciation for Ephesians as well as a twenty-first century apologetic for doctrinal humility and for theologizing within a global theological commons.


Book Synopsis Earthing the Cosmic Christ of Ephesians--The Universe, Trinity, and Zhiyi's Threefold Truth, Volume 2 by : John P. Keenan

Download or read book Earthing the Cosmic Christ of Ephesians--The Universe, Trinity, and Zhiyi's Threefold Truth, Volume 2 written by John P. Keenan and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2022-09-09 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is volume 2 of a wide-ranging interfaith reading of the Letter to the Ephesians—a New Testament text whose words have inspired and enhanced Christian spiritual life and liturgy over the centuries. Unfortunately, at the same time, Ephesians has provided apparent scriptural support to those who would defend slavery, patriarchy, misogyny, and the physical power of Christ over the cosmos. How on earth are today’s Christians to receive and understand such a text as this? Earthing the Cosmic Christ of Ephesians: The Universe, Trinity, and Zhiyi’s Threefold Truth draws upon a broad array of scientific, theological, and philosophical thinkers who enable us both to marvel at today’s ever-expanding knowledge of our vast cosmos and to appreciate the importance of the Ephesian letter in the canon of our Christian scriptures, even while we acknowledge the archaic geocentric cosmology that underlies its claims about the cosmic Christ and reject its accommodation to the patriarchal, misogynistic, and slaveholding norms of its first-century culture. Throughout this reading of Ephesians, we look to Chinese Buddhist master Zhiyi and his “threefold truth” to enhance our understanding of trinity and the nascent trinitarian themes within this letter. As a whole, this work constitutes a new appreciation for Ephesians as well as a twenty-first century apologetic for doctrinal humility and for theologizing within a global theological commons.


Paul and Seneca in Dialogue

Paul and Seneca in Dialogue

Author: Joey Dodson

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2017-03-13

Total Pages: 358

ISBN-13: 9004341366

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Paul and Seneca in Dialogue assembles an international group of scholars to compare the philosophical and theological strands in Paul and Seneca’s writings, placing them in dialogue with one another. Arguably, no other first-century, non-Christian writer’s thoughts resemble Paul’s as closely as Seneca’s, and scholars have often found value in comparing Pauline concepts with Seneca’s writings. Nevertheless, apart from the occasional article, broad comparison, or cross-reference, an in-depth critical comparison of these writers has not been attempted for over fifty years – since Sevenster’s monograph of 1961. In the light of the vast amount of research offering new perspectives on both Paul and Seneca since the early 1960s, this new comparison of the two writers is long overdue.


Book Synopsis Paul and Seneca in Dialogue by : Joey Dodson

Download or read book Paul and Seneca in Dialogue written by Joey Dodson and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2017-03-13 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paul and Seneca in Dialogue assembles an international group of scholars to compare the philosophical and theological strands in Paul and Seneca’s writings, placing them in dialogue with one another. Arguably, no other first-century, non-Christian writer’s thoughts resemble Paul’s as closely as Seneca’s, and scholars have often found value in comparing Pauline concepts with Seneca’s writings. Nevertheless, apart from the occasional article, broad comparison, or cross-reference, an in-depth critical comparison of these writers has not been attempted for over fifty years – since Sevenster’s monograph of 1961. In the light of the vast amount of research offering new perspectives on both Paul and Seneca since the early 1960s, this new comparison of the two writers is long overdue.


Colossians: An Earth Bible Commentary

Colossians: An Earth Bible Commentary

Author: Victoria S. Balabanski

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2020-01-23

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 0567674401

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Vicky Balabanski analyses Colossians as a co-authored letter, written during Paul's Roman imprisonment by Timothy with the input of Epaphras, and sent with Paul's introductory and concluding greetings. Balabanski sees remarkable resonances between the cosmology of this letter and that of Stoic thought, the most widely held philosophy in first century Asia Minor. Drawing upon the way Stoic thinkers saw the divine Spirit permeating reality and sought to attune their lives to the Logos, divine reason, she argues that the Logos of Christ – the Gospel – was welcomed by small groups of people shaped by Stoic thought, and they experienced Christ as the visible expression of the One God who permeates reality. The Letter to the Colossians has the highest view of Christ of any of the New Testament writings, and its theology of divine permeation invites us to notice the ecological potential of this letter. This Eco-Stoic reading brings contemporary ecological questions into dialogue with the distinctive Christology and cosmology of the letter.


Book Synopsis Colossians: An Earth Bible Commentary by : Victoria S. Balabanski

Download or read book Colossians: An Earth Bible Commentary written by Victoria S. Balabanski and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-01-23 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vicky Balabanski analyses Colossians as a co-authored letter, written during Paul's Roman imprisonment by Timothy with the input of Epaphras, and sent with Paul's introductory and concluding greetings. Balabanski sees remarkable resonances between the cosmology of this letter and that of Stoic thought, the most widely held philosophy in first century Asia Minor. Drawing upon the way Stoic thinkers saw the divine Spirit permeating reality and sought to attune their lives to the Logos, divine reason, she argues that the Logos of Christ – the Gospel – was welcomed by small groups of people shaped by Stoic thought, and they experienced Christ as the visible expression of the One God who permeates reality. The Letter to the Colossians has the highest view of Christ of any of the New Testament writings, and its theology of divine permeation invites us to notice the ecological potential of this letter. This Eco-Stoic reading brings contemporary ecological questions into dialogue with the distinctive Christology and cosmology of the letter.


Mark and Paul

Mark and Paul

Author: Eve-Marie Becker

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2014-05-08

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 311031469X

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This volume brings together an international group of scholars on Mark and Paul, respectively, who reopen the question whether Paul was a direct influence on Mark. On the basis of the latest methods in New Testament scholarship, the battle over Yes and No to this question of literary and theological influence is waged within these pages. In the end, no agreement is reached, but the basic issues stand out with much greater clarity than before. How may one relate two rather different literary genres, the apostolic letter and the narrative gospel? How may the theologies of two such different types of writing be compared? Are there sufficient indications that Paul lies directly behind Mark for us to conclude that through Paul himself and Mark the New Testament as a whole reflects specifically Pauline ideas? What would the literary and theological consequences of either assuming or denying a direct influence be for our reconstruction of 1st century Christianity? And what would the consequences be for either understanding Mark or Paul as literary authors and theologians? How far should we give Paul an exalted a position in the literary creativity of the first Christians? Addressing these questions are scholars who have already written seminally on the issue or have marked positions on it, like Joel Marcus, Margaret Mitchell, Gerd Theissen and Oda Wischmeyer, together with a group of up-coming and senior Danish scholars from Aarhus and Copenhagen Universities who have collaborated on the issue for some years. The present volume leads the discussion further that has been taken up in: “Paul and Mark” (ed. by O. Wischmeyer, D. Sim, and I. Elmer), BZNW 191, 2013.


Book Synopsis Mark and Paul by : Eve-Marie Becker

Download or read book Mark and Paul written by Eve-Marie Becker and published by Walter de Gruyter. This book was released on 2014-05-08 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together an international group of scholars on Mark and Paul, respectively, who reopen the question whether Paul was a direct influence on Mark. On the basis of the latest methods in New Testament scholarship, the battle over Yes and No to this question of literary and theological influence is waged within these pages. In the end, no agreement is reached, but the basic issues stand out with much greater clarity than before. How may one relate two rather different literary genres, the apostolic letter and the narrative gospel? How may the theologies of two such different types of writing be compared? Are there sufficient indications that Paul lies directly behind Mark for us to conclude that through Paul himself and Mark the New Testament as a whole reflects specifically Pauline ideas? What would the literary and theological consequences of either assuming or denying a direct influence be for our reconstruction of 1st century Christianity? And what would the consequences be for either understanding Mark or Paul as literary authors and theologians? How far should we give Paul an exalted a position in the literary creativity of the first Christians? Addressing these questions are scholars who have already written seminally on the issue or have marked positions on it, like Joel Marcus, Margaret Mitchell, Gerd Theissen and Oda Wischmeyer, together with a group of up-coming and senior Danish scholars from Aarhus and Copenhagen Universities who have collaborated on the issue for some years. The present volume leads the discussion further that has been taken up in: “Paul and Mark” (ed. by O. Wischmeyer, D. Sim, and I. Elmer), BZNW 191, 2013.