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The Amazing Colossal Apostle: The Search for the Historical Paul
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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, eventuall
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Start your review of The Amazing Colossal Apostle: The Search for the Historical Paul
This is Price's best work to date, with the exception of his Pre-Nicene New Testament. This book should be partnered with Bultmann's Synoptic Tradition as it's in the same style of criticism. Dismantling point by point the apologetic's of Pauline theology and modern thinking. This book leaves no foundation for the character of Paul to stand on, and in my opinion, shows there never was a Paul that required a foundation to stand on.
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Bob Price again explores, from a very questioning, often cynical, and mostly very learned, perspective, the history of the early years and traditions of what was to become christianity as we know it (though most believers from many sects don't quite "know" it). Always entertaining in the midst of his very dense, serious scholarship, Bob continues here to challenge the often simplistic orthodox understandings of "scripture." Here, he discusses the many sources (most of which were NOT related to t
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Como todo livro de Robert M Price este também desfila um colossal, como no título da obra, conhecimento do autor sobre os escritos do cristianismo primitivo. Até parece que o autor quer mostrar expertise para seus pares ou até mesmo para os leigos como nós. O livro é duro de se ler, ainda mais se você não está lendo em sua língua nativa, mas é obviamente um trabalho sério e vale o esforço.
O trabalho fundamentalmente se divide em duas partes: na primeira Price expõe suas ideias sobre os escritos ...more
O trabalho fundamentalmente se divide em duas partes: na primeira Price expõe suas ideias sobre os escritos ...more
As Jesus, so Paul
Where Price's earlier book on the Christ-myth theory was somewhat haphazard in presentation, he has given a thoroughly cohesive, even exhaustive, case in kind here for the apostle Paul. Put simply, he argues that it is likely that Paul was a literary persona used by early Christians, Marcionite and Catholic alike, to give authority to the doctrines they promoted. Eventually, due to the popularity of Paul among Marcionites, Catholics co-opted writings attributed to him by "correc ...more
Where Price's earlier book on the Christ-myth theory was somewhat haphazard in presentation, he has given a thoroughly cohesive, even exhaustive, case in kind here for the apostle Paul. Put simply, he argues that it is likely that Paul was a literary persona used by early Christians, Marcionite and Catholic alike, to give authority to the doctrines they promoted. Eventually, due to the popularity of Paul among Marcionites, Catholics co-opted writings attributed to him by "correc ...more
I disagree with Price on a *lot* I wanted to give this three stars due to editing and some footnoting errors and I think a little rhetoric in place of rigour.
But, Price's charm and honesty give it a four. Interesting to say the least ...more
But, Price's charm and honesty give it a four. Interesting to say the least ...more
Dr Price writes in a thorough scholarly manner, therefore this book is way above me.
This is a very dense book. It's a graduate level study on Paul and the Epistles (canon and apocryphal). Price name drops researchers and conclusions rapid fire to the point where I had to go back often to catch what was being discussed. I think the good Doctor forgets we're all not on the same level as himself and it would have been appreciated (although I acknowledge resulting in a much longer read) if Price would have paused on numerous occasions to give some more definitions, background and h
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A very good book. I was somewhat amazed at Price's “Amazing” scholarship. He has a great command of the texts from the Bible, extra-biblical, and other cultural sources. His premise is that none of the Pauline epistles were written by an historical Paul. Before reading the book I was under the impression that Price was going to show that there was no real Paul. But, whether or not there was one, he definitely did not write a single epistle. Price presents a great deal of evidence to support this
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Makes the Pauline and other letters/epistles come alive, but one can never think again that what we have here is the dictated instructions from god (of course, this is what the writer of Paul's writings thought, but not in the sense understood by us reading today completely biassed by the content of the gospels preceding them in the NT).
Basically, the book starts with an optimistic view of finding the real Paul, but the diabetic has us ending with a hopeless ever shrinking Paul until there is n ...more
Basically, the book starts with an optimistic view of finding the real Paul, but the diabetic has us ending with a hopeless ever shrinking Paul until there is n ...more
Price makes a lot of interesting points about the identity of Paul. I'm not sure that I buy his final suggestion, but it is interesting. I appreciate that he makes clear that his final conclusion is speculation. Educated speculation, but still that.
I appreciate the he calls into question the identity of Paul and the authorship of all (yes, that's right) of the epistles. I never really did quite get the certainty that seemed to surround Paul.
Price is a strong writer and he can be very accessible ...more
I appreciate the he calls into question the identity of Paul and the authorship of all (yes, that's right) of the epistles. I never really did quite get the certainty that seemed to surround Paul.
Price is a strong writer and he can be very accessible ...more
Useful book for investigating the inner workings and contradictions of Paul's letters in some detail. I'm not sure that Price lays out his argument effectively enough for me to follow him to his final conclusions. But that might be more a comment about me than the author. If you have 'The Pre-Nicene New Testament', the second half of the book is somewhat redundant, since it reproduces material already in that book.
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Paul Who?
A fascinating dissection of the Pauline texts, which leaves one convinced that we have little if any of the original Paul, if there was an original Paul. The texts appear, instead, as thoroughly Catholic products of the eventually triumphant proto-orthodox church in combat with the "heretics."
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A fascinating dissection of the Pauline texts, which leaves one convinced that we have little if any of the original Paul, if there was an original Paul. The texts appear, instead, as thoroughly Catholic products of the eventually triumphant proto-orthodox church in combat with the "heretics."
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Robert McNair Price is an American theologian and writer. He teaches philosophy and religion at the Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary, is professor of biblical criticism at the Center for Inquiry Institute, and the author of a number of books on theology and the historicity of Jesus, asserting the Christ myth theory.
A former Baptist minister, he was the editor of the Journal of Higher Criticism ...more
A former Baptist minister, he was the editor of the Journal of Higher Criticism ...more
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“and others all agreed that Acts was pretty much an historical novel, much like the so-called Apocryphal Acts, and that it was written in the second century. There is virtually no historical value to it, but it is rich in edifying propaganda, its author having extensively rewritten sources that seem to include Homer, Virgil, Euripides, Josephus, and the Septuagint, creating a revisionist version of early Christianity in the golden age of its origin.”
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