Corpus-Paul

["Brian Peterson" <BPeterson AT ltss.edu>]

On 05/21/99, "Jim West <jwest AT highland.net>" wrote:
> Has anyone on list read Ben Witherington's "The Paul Quest: The Renewed
> Search for the Jew of Tarsus"?
> 
> What did you think?
> 
> I am considering adopting it as a text for a course and I just got hold of
> it.  I had considered using Murphy-Oconnor, but he is a bit "high".
> 
>

I used Witherington's book during the spring term for an "Introduction to 
Pauline Studies."  I think it worked quite well, and I plan to use it again 
next year.  Witherington's discussions about Roman society (honor, body, & 
patronage in particular) were good introductions for the students, and his 
brief but coherent introduction to rhetoric was very helpful.  I think 
Witherington's approach to the narrative foundation of Paul's theology and 
ethics also worked well (it is a particularly accessible approach for most 
students), and his explorations of Paul's relationship to social structures 
sparked some productive and passionate discussion.

I do work with a smaller Pauline canon that Witherington, and I think he is 
too confident about Pauline chronology and dates.  That provided some 
chances for students to see that even scholars are not beyond being 
challenged, and to see that one can disagree with details yet still benefit 
from the insights of others.

Brian Peterson
Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary
Columbia,  South Carolina