Corpus-Paul

["David C. Hindley" <dhindley AT compuserve.com>]

Frank Anthony asks (again) <g>:

>>I'd like the email addresses of some very competent Pauline
scholars. (Or NT scholars that can answer tough questions about Paul.
Not so much of his theology... but of social history).<<

Sounds like you are looking for a sort of historical fiction similar
to what Gerd Theissen did with _Shadow of the Galilean_ (E.T. 1987
[German 1986]). Theissen's fictional tale about people whose worlds
intersected with that of Jesus is interesting, and well informed by
contemporary social-historical scholarship (a guild of which Theissen
belongs), but he does admittedly take some liberties.

The thing that concerns me about reading historical fiction is how
hard it can be to distinguish where the history ends and the fiction
begins. While I hold that all historical narrative has a kinship to
fiction (in that evidence is conformed to a plot structure in order to
impart it with meaning), there is a point where the fiction no longer
has anything but the most tenuous relationship to the historical
evidence.

If a serious, well respected scholar like Theissen takes liberties to
make points clearer or more memorable, how much more so those whose
interest is not so much history but edification or apology? Most all
of what I have picked up that attempts to offer a fictional account of
either Paul's or Jesus' life and activities have been so romantic and
syrupy that I've had to put them down after a few pages (so sorry, no
bibliography is available). To these authors, Jesus or Paul are always
engaged in heroic struggles and their acts are so stereotypically
portrayed that you may as well be listening to a tent-revival
preacher.

You may, though, try Mark Goodacre's _NT Gateway_ at:

http://www.ntgateway.com/

There is a whole section dedicated to Paul, including links to web
pages maintained by academics with a more than casual interest in
Paul.

Respectfully,

Dave Hindley
Cleveland, Ohio, USA