1. Topic 15 Paul’s Influence 1.Deutero-Pauline writings a.Earliest interpreters of Paul. b.Interpreted Paul for a new generation – What would Paul say if he were still with us? 2.2 Peter 3:15-16 (c. 100-150) a.Paul’s letters already being collected, read as Scripture. b.Considered difficult to understand; interpreted in various ways. 3.Collection of “Pauline Corpus” – 2 theories: a.Informal process of churches swapping and sharing letters; gradually got into general circulation. b.Deliberate effort of an individual who gathered, edited, and published letters (Goodspeed: Onesimus!).

2. 4.Apostolic Fathers (c. 95-150) a.Writings from post-apostolic generation; many competed for inclusion in NT. b.Know Paul as Christian hero and quote his letters (esp. 1 Clement, Ignatius, and Polycarp). c.Their own theology is not esp. shaped by Paul’s. d.Typical of emerging catholic “orthodoxy” – more “legalistic” than Paul. 5.Marcion (c. 135-150) a.Rejected OT “God of law” in favor of Jesus’ “God of grace.” b.Created earliest NT canon: Luke + 10 letters of Paul. c.Thought he was restoring true gospel of Jesus as preserved by Paul. d.Was declared heretical; excommunicated; began his own church. 6.Gnostics (2 nd cent.) a.Paul was popular among the many Gnostic groups because his letters were susceptible to Gnostic interpretation (e.g., flesh vs. spirit). b.Gnostics quoted Paul so much he was called “the apostle of the heretics.” c.Reclaimed by heresy fighters like Irenaeus and Tertullian, who showed how Gnostics misinterpreted Paul.

3. 7.Augustine (5 th cent.) a.Church’s most influential theologian since Paul. b.Conversion based on reading of Rom. 13:13-14. c.Reshaped Catholic theology by recovering Paul’s radical sense of sin and the necessity of grace. d.Debates with Pelagius whether salvation depends entirely on God’s grace or also needs human cooperation. e.Shaped doctrines of original sin, grace, and predestination. 8.Martin Luther (16 th cent.) a.Agonized over whether his penance was sufficient to assure forgiveness. b.Conversion while preparing lectures on Romans (esp. 1:17). c.Saw that righteousness comes by faith alone, as a gift of grace. d.“Justification by faith alone” becomes hallmark of Protestant theology.

4. 9.John Wesley (18 th cent.) a.Reacted against sterile formalism of Anglican church and founded the Methodist movement. b.Conversion while listening to a reading of preface to Luther’s commentary on Romans; felt his heart “strangely warmed” by power of grace. c.Began preaching necessity of personal conversion experience and sanctified living. d.Developed doctrine of “sanctification” based largely on Rom. 6. 10.“Protestant Liberalism” (19 th cent.) a.Accused Paul of corrupting the simple “religion of Jesus” into a complicated “theology about Jesus.” b.Called Paul the “Second founder of Christianity.” c.Wanted to go “back from Paul to Jesus.” d.This perspective guided much of the so-called “Old Quest” for the historical Jesus. e.“Liberal” theology emphasized innate human goodness; universal “Fatherhood” of God and “brotherhood” of man; equated kingdom of God with inevitability of human progress.

5. 11.“Neo-orthodoxy” (early 20 th cent.) a.Reacting to two world wars and the holocaust, recovered sense of radical sinfulness and need for divine intervention. b.Movement is dated from Karl Barth’s commentary on Romans (1919). c.Emphasizes “wholly otherness” of God, radical sinfulness of man, and paradox of God’s saving sinners. 12.Feminism (late 20 th cent.) a.Paul has been vilified as chauvinist or glorified as liberationist. b.Are these opposing interpreters reading the same texts?