The Apostle Paul

What makes Paul the most important, most controversial, and least understood figure in earliest Christianity? Why does he have so many intense supporters and detractors? How should we understand his distinctive experience, the issues he faced, his way of thinking, and how all these affected the Christian religion?

We must face three critical issues. The first is personality or rhetoric? Do we seek the psychology of Paul or an understanding of his letters? The second is genius or tradition? Is Paul the inventor of Christianity, or is he part of a larger movement? The third issue is where is the real Paul? Do we follow the Acts of the Apostles or his letters? And, among the letters, which are really Paul's?

Because Paul's letters respond to specific situations, they are irreplaceable sources of knowledge concerning the problems experienced among the first urban Christians. This lecture provides an overview of the issues that Paul had to wrestle with in his letters.

Because Paul's letters respond to specific situations, they are irreplaceable sources of knowledge concerning the problems experienced among the first urban Christians. This lecture provides an overview of the issues that Paul had to wrestle with in his letters.

These letters, dating from around 52 C.E., represent the earliest extant Christian literature. Although some scholars contest the authenticity of 2 Thessalonians, the two letters are best read as stages of Paul's response to a single crisis in a local church concerning expectations about Jesus' return and the last days.

Paul's surviving correspondence with the Corinthian church reveals the real-life problems of a local church and Paul's view of his own mission. The Corinthians cannot agree on much of anything, whether the topic is food or sex or who gets to speak in the assembly. Paul tries to get them thinking less about their rights than about living in right relationship according to the mind of Christ.

This letter contains some of Paul's most personal, painful, and profound reflections on the meaning of ministry, which he sees as a process of self-emptying for the sake of others. Paul sees Jesus as the model for such a reconciling way of life, and asks the Corinthians to join him in freely imitating that pattern.

One of the fundamental issues facing the first Christians - the connection between Christ and the law of Moses - surfaces with particular sharpness in Galatians. In this passionate yet rigorously argued letter, Paul insists on a vision of life empowered by God's spirit and shaped by the pattern of Jesus' faith and love.

A magisterial argument concerning God's ways with the world, Romans is Paul's theological masterpiece. Presenting an orderly exposition of the good news as Paul proclaimed it, Romans has affected the course of theology in the Western church more than any other New Testament writing.

Philemon, Colossians, Ephesians, and Philippians seem to have been written while Paul was in prison. Taken as a group, the letters share a concern for fellowship, especially when all-too-human tensions threaten to deface the ideal of equality and unity in Christ. Ephesians stands as the best expression of these concerns and the Pauline tradition's most mature reflection on the meaning of the church.

Most scholars today think that the three letters to Paul's delegates (1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus) were written pseudonymously after Paul's death and, when read not as real letters but as a fictional correspondence, reveal a stage of development in the organization of early Christianity. This letter makes a case for a different approach to reading these three epistles.

Paul's letters have always been read aloud in worship, which is how he meant them to be used, and how they have continued to shape Christian awareness. Whatever his weaknesses, Paul still challenges his hearers to live more thoughtful and faithful lives as followers of the risen Jesus, and Paul's powerful voice subverts all reductions of Christianity to mere religious routine.