Spectres of the Real Paul: Review of Benjamin White on Paul in Memory

Spectres of the Real Paul: Review of Benjamin White on Paul in Memory May 28, 2015

Over at MRB, is a great review by T.J. Lang on Benjamin White’s book Remembering Paul.

An approach to Paul which is attuned to social memory would attend more seriously to the broad impressions of Paul that are reflected in ancient Pauline traditions — whether authentic or inauthentic, whether by Paul or about Paul — rather than continue to whittle his letters down to the securest but still speculative core. As Marc Bloch once remarked on Aeschylus’s Oresteia, “There is more certainty in the whole than in the parts.” So there may be more certainty in the Paul of early Christian memory than in any hypothetical quartet or septet of his letters.

It is a great volume, I reviewed the book earlier, see here.


Browse Our Archives