This course introduces students to Paul the Apostle as a person, as a Christ-believer, as apostle-preacher-pastor-missionary, to the disputed and undisputed Pauline letter corpus in the New Testament, to major themes of Paul’s theologies, and to Paul’s role in the formation of early Christianity. These studies will be situated in the social, cultural, and theological contexts of Mediterranean antiquity. The course gives careful consideration to how Paul and his thought are relevant and important for Christian belief and behaviour in the twenty-first century. A range of critical interpretive approaches to Paul, his letters, and theologies are explored. The course encourages students to consider Paul’s rhetoric: what do Paul, his letters, and theologies do to people? How are the theologies effective? What ideologies are evoked by Paul? Why and how is Paul important for Christian understanding?
Pre-requisites: None (students who have not had NT500 – Synoptics in which they learned the Greek alphabet, will need to learn the alphabet on their own prior to taking NT501)
Available by Distance
Both synchronous & asynchronous.