(+) Paul: A Study in Social and Religious History = Paulus: eine Kultur- und religionsgeschichtliche Skizze (1957 @1911 Deissmann / Wilson), book (American ed.)

Paul: A Study in Social and Religious History (1957) is the American edition of Paulus: eine Kultur- und religionsgeschichtliche Skizze (1911 Deissmann), book.

Abstract

After two British editions (1912 and 1926), the 1957 American edition gained huge popularity.

In contrast to much scholarship from the 19th century, which sought to understand Paul’s theology, Deissmann seeks to uncover the historical Paul. Documents from the Mediterranean World and New Testament writings serve and his primary sources. In the first half of the book, Deissmann describes how Paul’s Graeco-Roman context, his Diasporic Jewish origins, his unusual gifts (which enabled him to rise as a leader in the lower to middle classes), and especially how his Damascus Road experience influenced his religious genius. Leading from this, in the latter half of the book Deissmann is quick to point out that Paul himself did not establish the “Cult of Jesus,” but rather his spiritual experience of Christ, which he labels as “Christ-Intimacy” or “Christ-Mysticism,” combined with his missionary zeal profoundly influenced latter Christian thought and tradition. Paul’s legacy, according to Deissmann, was not a written systematic theology, but rather a personal mystical experience of the risen Christ, which he eagerly shared with both Jews and Gentiles across the Mediterranean World. In doing so, Paul established a framework (i.e. Pauline “Christ-intimacy”), which enabled the small Palestine Christ-cult to become a worldwide religion. – Deborah Forger, University of Michigan

Editions

Published in New York, NY: Harper, 1957.

Originally published in London [England]: Hodder and Stoughton, 1926:

• Paul: A Study in Social and Religious History = Paulus: eine Kultur- und religionsgeschichtliche Skizze (1926 Deissmann / Wilson), book (British ed.)

A previous translation of the book had been issued in London [England]: Hodder and Stoughton, 1912; translated from the 1st German ed. (1911) by Lionel R.M. Strachan:

• Paul: A Study in Social and Religious History = Paulus: eine Kultur- und religionsgeschichtliche Skizze (1912 Deissmann / Strachan), book (British ed.)

Table of contents

• 1. The Problem and the Sources
• 2. The World of Paul
• 3. Paul the Man
• 4. Paul the Jew
• 5. Paul the Christian
• 6. Paul the Christian (Continued)
• 7. Paul the Christian (Continued)
• 8. Paul the Christian (Continued)
• 9. Paul the Christian (Continued)
• 10. Paul the Apostle
• 11. Paul in the World’s Religious History
• Appendix I - The Proconsulate of L. Junius Gallio
• Appendix II - The Altar to the Unknown God
• Appendix III - Santa Croce, Florence. By Otto Crusius
• Appendix IV - Diagrams