The Amazing Colossal Apostle

The Amazing Colossal Apostle
Author: Robert M. Price
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781560852162

The story of Paul is one of irony, the New Testament depicting him at the martyrdom of Stephen holding the assassins' cloaks. Then this same Paul is transformed into the biblical archetype for someone suffering for their faith. He becomes so entrenched, it would appear that he had walked with the Christians all his life, that he was the one who defined the faith, eventually being called the "second founder of Christianity." But much of what we think we "know" about Paul comes from Sunday school stories we heard as children. The stories were didactic tales meant to keep us reverent and obedient. As adults reading the New Testament, we catch glimpses of a very different kind of disciple--a wild ascetic whom Tertullian dubbed "the second apostle of Marcion and the apostle of the heretics." What does scholarship tell us about the enigmatic thirteenth apostle who looms larger than life in the New Testament? The epistles give evidence of having been written at the end of the first century or early in the second--too late to have been Paul's actual writings. So who wrote (and rewrote) them? F. C. Baur, a nineteenth-century theologian, pointed persuasively to Simon Magus as the secret identity of "Paul." Robert M. Price, in this exciting journey of discovery, gives readers the background for a story we thought we knew.

Envisioning Scripture: Joseph Smith's Revelations in Their Early American Contexts

Envisioning Scripture: Joseph Smith's Revelations in Their Early American Contexts
Author: Colby Townsend
Publisher:
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2022-05-16
Genre:
ISBN: 9781560854470

The first fifty years of United States history was a period of seemingly endless possibility. With the birth of a new country during the age of revolutions came new religions, new literary genres, new political parties, temperance and abolitionist societies, and the expansion of print and marketing networks that would dramatically change the course of the century. Envisioning Scripture: Joseph Smith's Revelations in Their Early American Contexts brings together ten essays from leading scholars on the history of early American religion and print culture. Covering issues of gender, race, prophecy, education, scripture, real and narrative time, authority and power, and apocalypticism, the essays invite the reader--scholar, student, etc.--to expand their knowledge of early Mormon history by grasping more fully the American contexts that Mormonism grew out of. Contributors include Catherine A. Brekus, William Davis, Elizabeth Fenton, Kathleen Flake, Paul Gutjahr, Jared Hickman, Susan Juster, Seth Perry, Laura Thiemann Scales, and Roberto A. Valdeón.

A Prolegomenon to the Study of Paul

A Prolegomenon to the Study of Paul
Author: Patrick Hart
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2020-04-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004428526

A Prolegomenon to the Study of Paul examines foundational assumptions that ground all interpretations of the apostle Paul. This examination touches on several topics, invoking issues pertaining to truth, hermeneutics, canonicity, historiography, pseudonymity, literary genres, and authority. Underlying all of this is a guiding thesis, namely, that every encounter with Paul involves “Pauline Archimedean points,” or fixed points of reference that establish the measure for constructing any interpretation of Paul whatsoever. Building on this, the author interrogates various issues that inform the formation of these Pauline Archimedean points, in pursuit of an important but modest goal: to urge Pauline readers to engage in a modicum of self-reflection over the various considerations that precondition all of our efforts to comprehend Paul.

An Epic Tale of the People of the Covenant (The origin of Christianity)

An Epic Tale of the People of the Covenant (The origin of Christianity)
Author: Atsushi Murakami
Publisher: Atsushi Murakami
Total Pages: 1618
Release: 2021-02-26
Genre: Religion
ISBN:

Last year (2019), I published the 6th edition of my book "The Origin of Christianity" with the subtitle "An Epic Tale of the People of the Covenant," paying attention to the fact that Christianity was born from the "church movement" that had occurred in the process of the people of the Covenant scattered all over the world after they had migrated from the Fertile Crescent at the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to the Promised Land Canaan. However, later, it became clear that the Ephraim and Manasseh, only who possess the genetic characteristics of Paleo-Mongoloid among the twelve tribes of Israel, played an important role not only in the conquest of Canaan but also in the eastern transmission of Christianity. Thus, this time, I deliver this 7th edition with the main title of "An Epic Tale of the People of the Covenant." In creating the augmented part of the 7th edition, I got many hints from the blog of Protestant Bible commentator Mr. Arimasa Kubo (久保有政), who was the first pastor of the Ikebukuro-Nishi Church, and used them as the reference. December 2020 Atsushi Murakami

Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture, Volume 1 (2012)

Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture, Volume 1 (2012)
Author: The Interpreter Foundation
Publisher: The Interpreter Foundation
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2012-09-28
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1479266388

This is volume 1 (2012) of Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture by Interpreter Foundation. It contains articles on diverse topics such as charity in defending the kingdom, Nephi's esoteric exchange with the Spirit in 1 Nephi 11, the cultural context of Nephite apostasy, a book review of Temple Themes in the Book of Moses, a commentary on temple theology in John 17, a letter from John Sorenson to Michael Coe on Mesoamerica, atheist piety, a book review of Latter-day Scripture: Studies in the Book of Mormon, Mormonism and Wikipedia, and a book review of Understanding the Book of Mormon: A Reader's Guide.

Sorting Out Paul

Sorting Out Paul
Author: Chris Albert Wells
Publisher: Strategic Book Publishing & Rights Agency
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2015-07-08
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 163135759X

This book provides the basis for revising early Roman church history. The second-century confrontations that structured the church were symbolized by Peter, representing the church’s initial Judean legacies, and by Paul signifying the Hellenistic theology. Paul is a key actor whose role cannot be correctly understood without separating the first-century man from his second-century legend. Historical Paul brought to Gentiles a new salvation promise in the name of Jesus, Son of Israel’s Creator God. Legendary Paul belonged to a Christianity that radically departed from the original matrix. Paul posthumously became an apostle to the second-century Hellenistic “heretics” under Marcion’s guidance who rejected the Messiah’s Judean legacy. The “centrist” Christian group, challenged by Marcion, used Peter’s primacy to defend their cause. Winning an important political battle, centrists created a wide anti-heretical front and established the church’s primary Judean orthodoxy. Paul losing the keys to Peter but finally occupying a third of the New Testament resumes the agitated history of the early Roman Church. It comprises an initial layer of Judean-influenced orthodoxy Paul rejected as the least of the apostles, completed by a second layer of Hellenistic-inspired orthodoxy, Paul rehabilitated. The continuing confrontations between Peter and Paul produced important texts, influenced the Gospels, made the church evolve, and falsified church history by introducing traditions that still confuse Christians. Understanding the political battles involved in establishing the Roman Church will help in reading all the texts that went into the Christian Bible with their conflicting ideals.

The Empty Prison Cell

The Empty Prison Cell
Author: Chris M. Hansen
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 145
Release: 2024-06-21
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1666784990

Despite having enjoyed almost universal assent by scholars up till now, Chris Hansen swims into practically uncharted waters to show that one of the most overlooked and inconspicuous New Testament writings may, in fact, be a forgery. In the first English language book to ever cover the subject of Philemon’s authenticity, Hansen provides a detailed historiographical overview of the problem, and raises challenging questions regarding the literary contents, themes, style, and intertextual relationships in Philemon. Hansen’s research and surprising conclusions will certainly be of interest to those unfamiliar with Philemon’s questionable history.

Saint Paul: An Architect of Christianity?

Saint Paul: An Architect of Christianity?
Author: Dr. Mohammad Mohiuddin Ahmed
Publisher: Blue Rose Publishers
Total Pages: 348
Release: 2020-09-07
Genre: Religion
ISBN:

This book deals with “Saint Paul” (of Tarsus) who was a highly learned person. He had no personal acquaintance with Jesus Christ. He was a great persecutor of Jesus Christ and his followers. But on the vision of Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus, he became a stronger believer, follower, preacher and Apostle of Jesus Christ and adapted Jesus’s Way of Life. However, he altered and contradicted most of Moses and Jesus’s teachings. During his missionary exhortations, Saint Paul was hounded by Jews for his controversial views and teachings. Rejected by Jews, Saint Paul turned his attention towards Gentiles who accepted him as an Apostle of Jesus and adapted his contentious teachings which are questionable and debatable even today.

Resetting the Origins of Christianity

Resetting the Origins of Christianity
Author: Markus Vinzent
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 419
Release: 2022-12-31
Genre: Bibles
ISBN: 1009290487

How do we know what we know about the origins of the Christian religion? Neither its founder, nor the Apostles, nor Paul left any written accounts of their movement. The witnesses' testimonies were transmitted via successive generations of copyists and historians, with the oldest surviving fragments dating to the second and third centuries - that is, to well after Jesus' death. In this innovative and important book, Markus Vinzent interrogates standard interpretations of Christian origins handed down over the centuries. He scrutinizes - in reverse order - the earliest recorded sources from the sixth to the second century, showing how the works of Greek and Latin writers reveal a good deal more about their own times and preoccupations than they do about early Christianity. In so doing, the author boldly challenges understandings of one of the most momentous social and religious movements in history, as well as its reception over time and place.