Paul, Founder of Churches
A Study in Light of the Evidence for the Role of Founder-Figures in the Hellenistic-Roman Period
by James C. Hanges
The apostle Paul’s understanding of his role and responsibilities in transferring the cult of Jesus Christ to new lands to found new groups devoted to this immigrant son of God is not unique. His modus operandi cannot be adequately explained in terms of Jewish precedents. Rather, Paul’s pattern is a creative appropriation of the enduring Greek model of the founder, the key figure in Greek imaginings of the formation of social space, whether colony or cult. Cult foundation inscriptions as well as literary descriptions show that such foundations were laid according to persistent elements of a pattern originating in Greek foundation narratives focused on the oracular selection of the founder-figure and his obedience to a divine impetus for cult innovation. With the help of modern culture studies, especially postcolonial critique, Paul’s letters show that he not only appropriated this traditional Greek model and applied it to the foundation of his churches, but creatively adapted it for purposes of group self-definition and his own sensibilities. While Paul uses few technical foundation terms, his reliance on divine visionary endorsement of his transfer of the Christ cult to new places, the way the apostle exercises authority over the communities he has founded, his attempt to integrate his Greek communities into the sacred history of Israel, and the strategies used against him by his opponents reveal his use of the Greek foundational model. Paul shares the discourse and action of contemporary cult founders who, like him, were obeying their deity’s call for transferal to a new location.
- By (author) James C Hanges
Other Titles in this Series
The Holy Spirit and the Church according to the New Testament
Sixth International East-West Symposium of New Testament Scholars, Belgrade, August 25 to 31, 2013
Theologie des Lebens bei Paulus und Johannes
Ein theologisch-konzeptioneller Vergleich des Zusammenhangs von Glaube und Leben auf dem Hintergrund ihrer Glaubenssummarien
Volume 389
Paradise Lost in Transmission
The Return to Eden in the Apocalypse of Peter within Its Ethiopic and Early Christian Contexts
Between Canonical and Apocryphal Texts
Processes of Reception, Rewriting, and Interpretation in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
Reading the First Century
On Reading Josephus and Studying Jewish History of the First Century
Volume 300
Divine Kingdom and Kingdoms of Men / Gottesreich und Reiche der Menschen
Studies on the Theology of the Septuagint Volume II / Studien zur Theologie der Septuaginta Band II
Volume 432
Leiblich vermitteltes Leben
Vorstellungen vom Uberwinden des Todes und vom Auferstehen im fruhen Christentum
Volume 501
Der Ratschluss Gottes
Erzählanalytische Untersuchungen zu einem theologischen Zentralmotiv des lukanischen Doppelwerks
Volume 527
Similar Books
‘For You I Study, For You I Work, For You I Live, For You I Am Ready To Even Give My Life’
Essays in Honour of Francis (Frank) J Moloney, SDB
Ars Prophetica
Theology in the Poetry of Twentieth-Century Hebrew Poets Avraham Halfi, Shin Shalom, Amir Gilboa, and T. Carmi
As Messianism Turns to Heresy
The Regenstein Chair Lectures On Lurianic Kabbalah and Shabbatai Tzevi at Hebrew Union College - Cincinnati
Drunk the Potion, No Whit Charmed
The Doctrine of Pure and Perfect Souls from Iamblichus to Damascius
Epiphanies of the Divine in the Septuagint and the New Testament
Fifth International Symposium of the Corpus Judaeo-Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti (CJHNT), 14-17 May 2015, Nottingham
Extracanonical Traditions and the Holy Land
Texts, Rituals, and Material Culture in Late Antique Palestine
Fear, Fear of God, God-Fearers
Philological and Historical Perspectives on the World of Ancient Judaism and Christianity
