This illuminating course addresses many questions concerning Paul's embattled life and work. Is Paul the inventor of Christianity or part of a larger movement? Why does he focus on the moral character of the community? How do his supporters and detractors depict him? You can find the answers to these and other questions in this piercing look at what Professor Johnson calls "one of the most fascinating, important, and controversial figures in the religious history of the West."
The Apostle Paul
Historian Luke Timothy Johnson offers a fresh and historically grounded assessment of the life and letters of Christianity's "apostle to the Gentiles."
Overview
About
Dr. Luke Timothy Johnson is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Emory University's Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, Georgia. Professor Johnson earned a Ph.D. in New Testament Studies from Yale University, as well as an M.A. in Religious Studies from Indiana University, an M.Div. in Theology from Saint Meinrad School of Theology, and a B.A. in Philosophy from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. A former Benedictine monk, Professor Johnson has taught at Yale Divinity School and Indiana University, where he received the President's Award for Distinguished Teaching, was elected a member of the Faculty Colloquium in Teaching, and won the Brown Derby Teaching Award and the Student Choice Award for teaching. At Emory University, he has twice received the On Eagle's Wings Excellence in Teaching Award. In 2007 he received the Candler School of Theology Outstanding Service Award. His most recent award is the 2011 Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion for the ideas set forth in his 2009 book, Among the Gentiles: Greco-Roman Religion and Christianity. Professor Johnson is the author of more than 20 books, including The Real Jesus: The Misguided Quest for the Historical Jesus and the Truth of the Traditional Gospels and The Writings of the New Testament: An Interpretation, which is widely used as a textbook. He has also published several hundred scholarly articles and reviews.
01: An Apostle Admired and Despised
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?
33 min
02: How Should We Read Paul?
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?
30 min
03: Paul’s Life and Letters
By using the few extant sources critically, we can reconstruct Paul's career, at least in outline. In this framework, it is also possible to locate some of his correspondence that now forms the main basis for our knowledge of Paul and describe the main literary features of his letters that are important for their interpretation.
31 min
04: Problems of Early Christianity
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.
31 min
05: First and Second Thessalonians
These letters, dating from around 52 CE, 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.
31 min
06: Life in the World—First Corinthians
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."
30 min
07: Life in Christ—Second Corinthians
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.
30 min
08: Life and Law—Galatians
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.
30 min
09: Life and Righteousness—Romans
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.
31 min
10: Fellowship—Letters from Captivity
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.
30 min
11: History and Theology
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.
31 min
12: Paul’s Influence
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.
31 min
