The authentic Paul : critical scholarship and the making of a Christian book / Gregory Fewster.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fewster, Gregory P., author.

Series:

Studies in Christianity and Judaism ; 5.

Studies in Christianity and Judaism ; 5

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bible. Epistles of Paul--History.

Bible.

Christian scholars--History.

Christian scholars.

Philology--History.

Philology.

Physical Description:

xii, 260 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Montréal ; Kingston ; London ; Chicago : McGill-Queen's University Press, [2025]

Summary:

"The letters of the Apostle Paul, written in the first century and compiled in the Christan New Testament, have acted as a reservoir of divine authority for generations of Christians. Yet from the time they were written, it has been claimed that some letters of the Pauline corpus have been altered and even forged. Rooted in meticulous analyses of ancient papyri, literary texts, early print journals, and critical editions, Gregory Fewster tells a story of the numerous critical scholars from antiquity to the modern period who have laboured to make a Book of Paul's letters that is free from textual variation and forgery: the authentic Pauline corpus. The Authentic Paul challenges one of the fundamental assumptions that lies at the heart of the discipline of philology: that "authenticity" is an inherent property of literature that can be recovered or destroyed. Drawing on theoretical and methodological insights from the field of Book History and the critical study of Religion, this book argues instead that authenticity is a value attributed to texts through philological practice. With this premise, the book also challenges teleological narratives of philological progress, which understands the field to be getting progressively better at distinguishing authentic literary works from forged ones. This book analyses four episodes in the history of the philology of works attributed to Paul the Apostle, split between the ancient and modern periods. It documents how critical scholars have imagined and manufactured the boundaries of the authentic Pauline corpus as a Book, how practices of authentication are culturally determined, and the traditions of criticism that regulate critical scholarship itself."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Critical Scholarship in Roman Egypt and the Power of the Classical Canon

Heresiology, Philology, and the Encounter with Marcion's Apostolikon

Making Corinthians Apocryphal in the Eighteenth Century Republic of Letters

Imagining the "Critical" with the Ancient Alexandrians.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Other Format:

Online version: Fewster, Gregory P. Authentic Paul.

ISBN:

9780228024194

0228024196

OCLC:

1456862775