Starting on January 21st, our own Joe Rutter will be presenting a four week program on the Apostle Paul. Joe plans to highlight how Paul actively engendered community identity and local leadership in order to build up the church. He used tools of empowerment to build self-organizing and self-sustaining churches all over the Mediterranean, and built a sophisticated network in order to accomplish the work. And he wrote some stunningly beautiful passages of scripture while he was doing it.

As with most of our Adult Formation classes, Joe’s will take place on Thursday nights at 7:00 PM, on Zoom. Joe will be offering some articles for our consideration as we go, and they will be posted here.

January 21 – February 11
7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
https://zoom.us/j/96599723428

As the study continues, we’ll be posting related articles here. Use the links below to navigate to links to them.

Course Outline

Bibliography

Articles

St. Paul in Four Parts

Part One – The Death of Paul

1. Overview of the Class
2. Paul’s PR Problem
3. The Nature of His Writings
4. Scope of Paul’s Mission
5. His Martyrdom
6. His Mythology
7. ParticipantsReactions

Part Two – Saul of Tarsus

1. Paul’s Religious and Cultural Identities
2. Youth and Education
3. Social Status
4. ReligiousCharacter
5. Early Adulthood
6. Zealous Persecutor of Followers of Jesus
7. ParticipantsReactions

Part Three – The Mission and The Journeys

1. Paul’s Life Changing Experience
2. His Response
3. His Relationship with the Early Christian Community
4. The Journeys
5. Participants Reactions

Part Four – The Legacy of Saint Paul

1. Why does Paul Matter?
2. Why do We Resist Him?
3. Why do We Revere Him?

Bibliography

Bibliography for Paul in Four Parts

Borg, Marcus J. and Crossan, John Dominic. The FirstPaul. HarperOne, 2009.

Callewaert, Joseph M.. The Work of Saint Paul. Ignatius Press, 2006.

Crossan, John Dominic. The Birth of Christianity. HarperOne, 1998.

Eastman, David L.. The Work of Saint Paul. Ignatius Press, 2006. Ehrman, Bart D. the Ancient Martyrdom Accounts of Peter and

Paul. Society of Biblical Literature, 2015.
Harrill, James Albert. Paul the Apostle: His Life and Legacy in

Their Roman Context. Cambridge University Press, 2012. Klauck, Hans-Josef. The Religious Context of Early Christianity.

Fortress Press, 2003.
Meeks, Wayne A. and Fitzgerald, John T.. The Writings of Saint

Paul. W.W.Norton, 2007.

Meeks, Wayne A.. The First Urban Christians, The Social World of the Apostle Paul. Yale University Press, 1983.

Articles