Corpus-Paul

["John Dickson" <jdickson AT bigpond.com>]

Dear list,

I am writing a dissertation on the expectations of community involvement in ‘mission’ in early Christianity. The study focuses mainly on the evidence of the Pauline corpus, to which I then compare the results of my investigation into other first and second century Christian literary traditions.

As many will have noted, the paucity of statements implying community involvement in the proclamation of the gospel in the Paulines is striking given his obvious devotion to the ‘fulfilment of the gospel’. This observation has led me to wonder more about Paul’s view of ‘authorisation’ for proclamation and the extent to which this impinges upon his concept of community involvement in the advance of the gospel.

I would be grateful for any bibliographic suggestions on this theme – the concept of ‘authorisation’ (for Paul and his co-workers) in the Pauline epistles, and/or in contemporary Jewish and Greco-Roman literature.

Thank you,

John Dickson

Macquarie University
Department of Ancient History
College of Humanities
Sydney, Australia

jdickson AT bigpond.com