(+) Paul and His Interpreters: A Critical History = Geschichte der Paulinischen Forschung (1912 Schweitzer / Montgomery), book (English ed.)

Paul and His Interpreters: A Critical History (1912) is the English edition of Geschichte der Paulinischen Forschung (1911 Schweitzer), book. Translated from the German by William Montgomery.

Abstract

Schweitzer’s critique of a century of German scholarship on the Apostle Paul. Schweitzer attacks the Tübingen school, founded by F. C. Baur, for its insistence that Paul’s theology was Hellenistic in orientation, usually leaning heavily upon the Greco-Roman mystery cults. Schweitzer insisted that Paul must be interpreted independently of the Synoptics, John, and the rest of the New Testament writings. Schweitzer faults the interpreters of Paul for finding the man that they wanted to find. He made the same judgment of nineteenth century Jesus historians in The Quest of the Historical Jesus (1906). The tone of this first volume on Paul is critical and historical; Schweitzer’s own ideas are kept in the background and often remain unwritten except perhaps in the concluding chapter (“Summing-Up and Formulation of the Problem”). Schweitzer presented a fuller theology of Paul in his 1931 text The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle. The earlier text remains a valuable resource for nineteenth century German historiography on Paul. - Ronald Ruark, University of Michigan

Editions

Published in London [England]: Black, 1912. Reprinted in 1956.

Table of contents

The beginnings of the scientific method -- Baur and his critics -- From Baur to Holtzmann -- Critical questions and hypotheses -- The position at the beginning of the twentieth century -- Paulinism and comparative religion -- Summing-up and formulation of the problem