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Derek R. Brown, The God of this age: Satan in the churches and letters of the Apostle Paul (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2015)

Abstract

"How did Paul depict Satan as an apocalyptic opponent? Derek R. Brown demonstrates the significance of Paul's references to Satan and demonstrates the history of Satan in the Bible and nature of Satan's inimical work."

"Derek R. Brown’s The God of This Age: Satan in the Churches and Letters of the Apostle Paul (2015) presents a comprehensive investigation of Paul’s understanding of Satan within its Second Temple Jewish and Greco‑Roman contexts. Challenging assumptions that Paul’s demonology is marginal or inconsistent, Brown argues that Satan occupies a coherent and significant place in Paul’s theology and pastoral practice. Through detailed exegesis of key Pauline texts (notably 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, and Romans), the study demonstrates that Paul portrays Satan both as a cosmic adversary who blinds and deceives humanity and as an agent who disrupts the life of Christian communities through persecution, temptation, and division. Brown situates Paul’s depiction of Satan against Jewish apocalyptic traditions (e.g., 1 Enoch, Jubilees, Qumran) and shows how Paul adapts this imagery to his eschatological conviction that Christ’s death and resurrection have decisively undermined Satan’s dominion, even as the powers of evil continue to operate until the parousia. Methodologically, the work integrates historical‑critical analysis with sociological and theological perspectives, underscoring the rhetorical and pastoral functions of Satan language in the Pauline corpus. Brown concludes that Satan in Paul is neither a peripheral mythological remnant nor a fully independent dualistic force, but a theologically strategic figure whose activity highlights the urgency of eschatological hope and the necessity of communal perseverance."--ChatGTP

Contents

Introduction -- Images of Satan in biblical and Second Temple Jewish traditions -- Apocalyptic and Satan in Pauline theology -- Paul's apostleship and his churches -- Paul's references to Satan: Romans and 1 Thessalonians -- Paul's references to Satan: 1 and 2 Corinthians -- Conclusion.