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  • From: "Brian Peterson" <BPeterson AT ltss.edu>
  • To: corpus-paul
  • Subject: Re: the paul quest
  • Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 11:15:49


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




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