The Apostle Paul

by Luke Timothy Johnson

Coming to grips with Christianity means coming to grips with Paul. There is no figure aside from Jesus himself who is more important to the history of this world religion, and no figure from the age of the early church about whom we know more or of whom we have a more rounded view. Historian Luke Timothy Johnson, the best-selling author of The Real Jesus, offers a fresh and historically grounded assessment of the life and letters of Christianity's "apostle to the Gentiles" in this 12-lecture series. "One of the most fascinating, important, and controversial figures in the religious history of the West, Paul the Apostle continues to find champions and detractors, sometimes in surprising places," says Professor Johnson. This course addresses many questions concerning Paul's embattled life and Is Paul the inventor of Christianity or part of a larger movement? Is he best understood from the Acts of the Apostles or from his letters? Why does he focus on moral character of the community? How do his supporters and detractors depict him? You consider his letters to the Thessalonians, Corinthians, and Galatians. You explore his religious commitments as a member of the Pharisaic movement, his persecution of the Christian sect, the dramatic experience that changed him into an apostle, and his work as a missionary and church founder. The Controversial Apostle Controversy has always swirled around Paul. In fact, it began during his lifetime. As a Pharisaic persecutor of Christianity who became one of its most vocal and active exponents, as a Jew who preached to Gentiles, and as a missionary and pastor who had to deal with a wide range of demanding situations across several decades and many miles, it is hardly surprising that Paul should attract a body of critics and defenders who are as numerous and intense as his stature is titanic. The 13 letters associated with Paul, together with the large sections of the Acts of the Apostles that recount his missionary journeys, form the bulk of the New Testament. His writings-nearly all of which were set down and circulated before the Gospels were written-have been endlessly scoured as sources for Christian doctrine and morals. A Passionate Poet of the Divine Paul is an eloquent and passionate poet of the divine. His works are full of unforgettable passages, and his words have exercised an important influence on countless "ordinary" believers as well as theological giants such as Augustine and Luther. Paul's personality has been endlessly analyzed. He is one of the great converters (or turncoats, depending on one's perspective) in history. Modern thinkers inclined to fault Christianity-Nietzsche, Freud, and George Bernard Shaw, to name three of the more famous-often save their most intense scrutiny for Paul, whose views on issues of morality, sex, and authority continue to be contentious. The Heart and Mind of a Pastor Yet amid all the controversy around Paul, we tend to ignore the things which most concerned him, namely, the stability and integrity of the tiny Christian communities to which he wrote his letters. Professor Johnson aims to rectify this by focusing precisely on these letters to learn something about Paul in the context of early Christianity. After all, before Paul became a source for theology and a part of the canon of Scripture, he was a missionary and pastor. This leads to thought-provoking questions such What were the problems with which Paul and his readers had to deal? How did his letters sometimes create as many problems as they solved? What clues to reading Paul can we get from recent research on ancient rhetoric? In what sense is Paul a "radical," and in what sense does he mean his letters to have "conservative" implications? What relation do Paul's preaching and writings about the risen Christ have to the Jesus whose words and deeds we read of in the Gospels? As you join Professor Johnson in reading Paul's letters as individual literary compositions devoted to solving the urgent pastoral problems of the Christian communities he was nurturing, you begin to hear Paul's voice speaking to real-life situations and genuine crises. A Portrait Drawn from Life Such reading yields a picture of Paul that is far more complex than any stereotype, whether positive or negative. It is a portrait drawn from life. You find a Paul who struggles to establish the authority to teach even in a community that he has founded (1 Corinthians), then finds its allegiance slipping away just as he is engaged in the greatest act of his career (2 Corinthians). You discover a Paul who writes to relieve a community's mind (1 Thessalonians) only to find that he has inflamed its imagination (2 Thessalonians). You appreciate a Paul who seeks to realize an egalitarian ideal, and succeeds on some fronts (Galatians), but has only ambiguous results (Philemon) and undoubtedly fails (1 Timothy) on others. You see a Paul who sets out to raise money for a future trip and ends up creating a...

Genres: Religion, History, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Biography, Christianity, Christian

Audio CD

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Luke Timothy Johnson is an American New Testament scholar and historian of early Christianity. He is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Candler School of Theology and a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University.

Johnson's research interests encompass the Jewish and Greco-Roman contexts of early Christianity (particularly moral discourse), Luke-Acts, the Pastoral Epistles, and the Epistle of James.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paul the fun Apostle.
This was my first time listening to Professor Johnson and I thought he was very well-spoken. I've come to realize that scholars gonna be scholars and they will disagree. about. everything.
Johnson is no different in that respect, and I quite enjoyed his take on things.
As far as the subject matter goes, Paul is the New Testament. If you want to look at what teachings most modern sects of Christianity are based on, you need to look at Paul and the letters attributed to him.



One of the most interesting theories Johnson brought up was his belief that all the letters in the New Testament were written by Paul, or at the very least he authorized the letters. Outside of fundamentalists, it is (almost) universally agreed upon that Titus and 1 & 2 Timothy are forgeries in his name.
Johnson's theories gave some interesting possibilities that had to do with rhetorical writing styles of the day that could explain why these letters don't sound anything like him.



Ephesians is also considered a likely forgery and Johnson had his answers for that one, as well.
One of the oddest things about it is that it was such a highly impersonal letter. Paul spent time there and knew a lot of church members in Ephesus, but it was a dry letter that didn't have his usual greetings to Bob and Sally! style that other letters that he sent out had.
BUT.
In some manuscripts, the letter starts with From Paul the Apostle to the Saints in Ephesus and in others, it has From Paul the Apostle to the Saints in with no name after it.
He and other scholars posit that it was a circular letter to be read out loud in multiple churches as a teaching tool. If only the letter addressed to Ephesus remained in circulation, that would explain a lot.



Another interesting tidbit was his explanation of what he says is a mistranslation of Galatians 2:15.
NIV translation:
(15) We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles (16) know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.
The key phrase by faith in Jesus Christ is the part he is claiming as mistranslated and misunderstood. According to Johnson (and a growing minority of scholars), this should be translated more like because of Jesus' faith in God that puts people in the right relationship with God and not our faith in Jesus that puts us in the right relationship with God.
Now. I can't read ancient Greek, so I have no idea.
Also, I don't have a horse in this race, and could ideologically care less.
But I thought it was a neat point and I'd never heard it before.



Professor Johnson seems to feel the problem with understanding Paul and his writings came when church leaders in the 1st and 2nd centuries decided to stop using his letters as teachings from a man who was trying to be moral and grow a church, and made them into scripture to be read as words from God's mouth.
Instead of being able to simply look at what he was trying to accomplish - raising money for the church in Jerusalem to heal a breach, answering questions being raised by this new religion, blending Jewish traditions with gentile converts, trying to prove his right to lead and teach when he wasn't one of the original disciples, and thinking on his feet while putting out fires in multiple churches - his words were deemed holy and incontrovertible years after his death by early theologians.



I personally agree with him on that viewpoint.
Paul makes much more sense when you peel away the idea that these are God's words and look at him in a historical context. Is he possibly sexist by today's standards? Yes.
But he was certainly shaped by the times he lived in, and I'm not sure we should judge him for that.
And when it comes to things like slavery and women's rights, we shouldn't forget that his belief system was apocalyptic.
The world was ending in a matter of years, maybe days! Why bother with social reform when God was going to sort it all out in a short time anyway?



Luke Timothy Johnson isn't a super dynamic speaker, but I enjoyed the lecture anyway. I feel like I learned some new things and found new ways to look at things. And that's really all I ask for.
Recommended for those interested in the Christian religion.

[booklady · Rating 5 out of 5]

Professor Johnson helped me understand St. Paul better than anything else I have ever read or heard on the Apostle of the Gentiles. So far I’ve listened to this course twice, some lectures three times. I still want to listen again with dear husband and also check out more courses and books by this author. He is phenomenal!

First of all he’s very good about presenting conflicting positions, their reasons, the historical development of the various views and where current scholarship stands. He’s also upfront about his own personal perspective including where it has changed and why.

Some of the many things I learned:

1. Paul did not ‘invent’ Christianity as some of his critics claim. He was a creative, even a radical thinker who liked to resort to polar opposites, such as flesh and spirit, but he stands well within the Christian tradition and serves to interpret it.

2. Paul was a rhetorician, i.e., someone skilled at the art of developing and delivering arguments. This was a highly refined skill in the Greek world and included many rules which the writer was obliged to follow. Therefore, in reading St. Paul’s letters, it is necessary first of all to keep in mind that his writing, sentence structure and word choice took rhetorical rules as their basis. The best example of this is Romans which needs to be read as a scholastic diatribe. It has dialogical features (rhetorical questions, apostrophe, abrupt responses) and also a dialectical mode of argument.

3. He was not a theologian as so many since his time have tried to make him (to suit their own needs) but a moral teacher who was trying to form, assist and guide fledgling communities. He was usually responding to a specific communal problem(s) and his concern was primarily with the community as a whole rather than with the individual. His belief was one of ‘Everybody becomes stronger by making the whole community stronger!’

4. Paul was not a systematic philosopher/theologian. Any attempt to read his corpus as such will fail. Each letter needs to be read on its own within the context of its unique situation. This explains the numerous discrepancies among the letters. Like any good pastor, he ‘adjusted’ his advice to suit his audience.

5. It is Jesus’s faith in us that saves, not our faith in Him. (Galatians)

6. Paul’s authorship of the Pastoral Letters was never challenged until the 1800’s and and he offers several reasons why we may reconsider that challenge today.

All in all a very satisfying course! Highly recommended!

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May 30: Finished this for the first time. Have set it aside, but I want to go through it again after I listen to Saint Paul.

Another course which has been on-the-shelf FOR-ever! Waiting for me to get back to exercising. I get a lot of listening in when I start walking again. I think it was Julie who recommended this author to me? Not sure. Anyway, he is WONDERFUL! Used to be a Benedictine monk. Their loss is our gain. Excellent Scripture scholar!

[Roderick Vonhogen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fascinating book by Luke Timothy Johnson. After his introduction to the New Testament, I was hooked, and this book about Paul is so helpful in better understanding 'the apostle' and his writings.

Johnson is an excellent teacher, and the course is divided into short chapters that explain the background and the circumstances in which Paul wrote his letters. Johnson examines more recent theories about the attribution of the letters to either Paul himself, or to assistants that would write in his name.

He also makes some important points when it comes to the rethorical styles that Paul uses and that are often unknown to modern-day readers and interpreters of his writings.

Also, he stresses that Paul doesn't write from the perspective of a philospher or theologian, but as someone who is trying to 'manage' the various young church communities and therefore often writes circumstantial letters about issues in those communities.

Johnson explains how Paul's writings ended up in the Biblical Canon, and which circumstances led to the formation of that Canon. He also explores the limitations of Paul as a teacher and how some of his views are no longer very useful for our current understanding of the world and of human behavior, simply because Paul didn't develop a coherent, systematic doctrine about all the topics he addresses.

In an all too brief epilogue, Johnson explains how people like St. Augustin and Luther both read and interpreted Paul almost autobiographically, based on their personal experiences, which had far-reaching consequences for the generations they inspired. We should be well aware that our current interpretation of Paul is often the result of a negotiation with the texts, in which we have to take into consideration in what context and with what purpose Paul wrote what he wrote.

All in all a very well written, well researched overview of the figure of Paul and of his writings that makes me want to study more!

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audio download.
Not being a particularly religious person, I have recently become curious as to the basis for the tenants of the christian religion, as well as the other major mystical cults through history. Since Paul is responsible for writing a large portion of the New Testament, and Prof Johnson is an engaging and well-spoken lecturer, I figured that these lectures would serve me well on my search. I was only slightly disappointed.
I understand that, in the context of Paul's time, the Hebrew world was an unsettled one, with many looking for change from the sometimes rigid laws of the Torah. And that the teachings of Jesus might have suggested to many that there might be a way to at once obey the 'law' yet find more forgiveness for (sometimes unintentional) digressions. Paul, being the Jew that he was, sought ways to not so much convert but to include the Jews to a new religious point of view....offering a forgiving god rather than a wrathful god. To the pagans he offered structure and community.
So he is responsible for the formation of Christianity and authored much of the New Testament. It seems to me that much, if not all, of his writings represent the thought and philosophy of Paul, using Jesus as a foil or mouthpiece to establish his morality. This tactic was employed by several others later in history, notably Mohammad and Joseph Smith, with astounding success.
And the preoccupation of Paul's letters dealing with circumcision was as interesting then as it is today. Recently a friend who was considering that procedure as part of his upcoming religious revival asked me, rather sheepishly, if I had had that experience (and was it that bad)...I kindda shrugged and said that when I had mine I couldn't walk for a year. I neglected to tell him that I was 9 weeks old at the time.
Good lecture series...buy it on sale and pay attention. You will not be disappointed. Hope that helps

[Gebo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really good lecture series I listened to to get a better understanding of Paul. While I'm not super keen on Christianity and would rate my interest in this material low, this series was actually pretty interesting and really increased my interest in the subject, which in my mind is a very glowing review indeed. Highly recommend.

[Brett Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this a thought-provoking lecture series ranging from nuance and details to big picture concepts. Once a Benedictine Monk, lecturer Johnson was also a professor at Yale Divinity School, Indiana U, and Emory. He addresses a long list of modern controversies about Paul’s writings, placing them in the context of Paul’s time and place. As an agnostic, I found his treatment fair and reasoned. While I still wonder just how radical Paul was—and who walks thousands of miles to spread a message if not more than a little passionate—for me, Johnson’s treatment disarmed some of the political correctness that so often opposes Paul. Like, he was patriarchal. No… Really? A 50 A.D. Jewish man?

The recent discovery of “ancient rhetorical writing,” which Paul seems to have employed, was an intriguing twist. Such writing assumes a character, almost like modern-day acting, and writes from that character’s perspective, language usage, etc. This makes any determination of what kind of man Paul was a little dicey, but, if true, also clarifies some of what Paul said and how he said it. Given Paul dominates 14 of 27 New Testament books, he’s a perspective to reckon with in that arena.

With my interest in individualism vs. communitarianism, I found Paul’s emphasis on and mediation of those true communities of ancient times to be fascinating. Paul, says Johnson, was no theologian, but a moral teacher. He’s much more interested in community survival and cohesion than philosophical purity. He also had to deal with real-world consequences of an explicitly pluralistic faith and all the conflicting opinions that come out of such a thing. The egalitarian beliefs vs. social realities of free/slave, man/woman, Jew/gentile during an era when Hellenism and Judaism had crashed head-on with parts and people laying all over the place was quite the juggling act for Paul. How can half the people schooled in rational thought be expected to follow someone who adheres to supernatural faith all the way to his execution, and how can the other half who expects a Moses-like war general as messiah be expected to embrace a man convicted and crucified? Paul offers a Lao Tsu-like paradox (“If you want to be full, let yourself be empty. If you want to have everything , give everything up”), when Paul responds with the acquisition of spiritual power gained through a kind of human weakness that Jesus displayed, and a kind of faith that offers wisdom of another sort.

While Johnson argues Paul did not invent Christianity, as often asserted, Paul certainly expanded and elaborated it with new ideas. Would it have gained the following it did without him? Who can say? Very informative series.

[Bruce Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just found out the library has a bunch of these Great Courses online streaming - this was a good one to start with. It was like a college course with twelve 30 minute lectures. I learned a lot about Paul, considering I was totally uneducated about this huge figure in Christianity. After all those bible readings, it was good to get some history straight: Paul was not one of the original 12 apostles, he never encountered the human Jesus, he was of strong Jewish faith and was persecuting early Christians when he had an encounter with the risen Jesus, which resulted in a conversion and led to Paul establishing early Christian churches all around the Mediterranean sea. Johnson, one of the world's leading scholars on the New Testament, is a great speaker and takes pretty sizable chunks of the lectures talking about the actual legitimacy of authorship of the letters; I would have preferred more time on the actual letters/readings.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Religion, like history, mythology and science are subjects that fascinate me. The Teaching Company's Great Courses fill my need for knowledge. The Apostle Paul was a course taught by Luke Timothy Johnson. He teaches many of the religion courses in The Great Courses. This was the first one that I listened to by him.

Pr. Johnson is a professor of theology specializing in New Testament studes. He used to be a Benedictine monk. He is well spoken, and he knows his material. Johnson is a bit on the dry side, lacking the exuberance of some of the professors, however, he speaks very clearly.

The Apostle Paul course is a fairly quick listen as the Great Courses go, it is 12 lectures of 30 minutes each. In six hours you will learn about perhaps the most important figure of the New Testament after Jesus himself. If you know your New Testament (and I had just listened to Bart Ehrman's Great Course on the New Testament) you know that Paul wrote half of the books of the New Testament. Pr. Johnson lets you know right away that Paul was a controversial figure then and today. It was Paul who in many of his letters defines today's Christianity. Paul was not an original disciple of Jesus, in fact, he was a Jewish Roman who started as a persecutor of Christians. He was very educated and could read and write in Greek and other languages. Although Paul started many of the early Christian churches, he was not well liked by all, and many disagreed with his thoughts and ideas.

Pr. Johnson goes through both all that is known about Paul through both Paul's own letters and the works of Josephus. He places them in context. Paul after his conversion, taught the first churches of Christianity that they no longer needed to follow the Jewish rules and laws for salvation. Controversial subjects like the role of women are placed into context. Perhaps Paul wasn't as misogynistic as he could be viewed today. Each of the Bible chapters attributed to Paul was covered by Pr. Timothy Luke Johnson and explained and placed into context. He even covers controversies such as if all the letters ascribed to Paul were actually written by Paul. He covers Paul's time in various prisons and the letters written from prison. Whether one is converted by faith or good works was discussed. Paul believed that faith alone was what was needed for salvation, unlike James which stresses the importance of good works along with faith.

Luke Timothy Johnson's Great Course on the Apostle Paul really helped me put a lot of New Testament in context, explain its significance and explain Paul's importance to Christianity. Anyone interested in history or a deeper understanding of the New Testament should like this quick but informative look at the New Testament's most important writer.

[Ted · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the CD version of the course and my 2nd time to listen to it while driving in my car. Helpful insights into understanding St. Paul from someone who is both scholar and believer. He holds a very traditional view that St. Paul at a minimum influenced all of the Epistles bearing his name in the New Testament. He argues that Paul as a rhetorician uses the methodology of rhetoric to change "his voice" in his various letters. Thus Paul is not inconsistent, but when writing to different situations he adapts the methods of a rhetorician to speak to the situations. Since letters in antiquity were read aloud to and within communal gatherings, there was not a focus on individuals studying the text, but rather listening to the word. So they were better trained to hear the different voices of the rhetorician and understand the differing tones/messages are part of what St. Paul was trying to convey. We now so focus on the flat written text as literate students of the written word, that we forget how the early Christians would have heard (in every sense of the word) St. Paul.

[Alex Shrugged · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to give this audio course 4 stars, but I can only justify 3 1/2. The professor has a good, enthusiastic and gentle way of presenting his material. He addresses academic criticism of the writings of Paul and their historicity. He makes reasonable intellectual arguments for a religious person. I respect this. Academic criticism follows a strange path with academics disagreeing with each other. Thus it is reasonable for a religious person to pick out a path through the academic theories that agrees with one's own faith or at least leaves room for one's religious beliefs.

I was gladdened to hear the professor correct some Christian misconceptions due to poor translations of certain verses into English from the original Greek. There was something about the New Testament saying that one is saved only through faith in Jesus. But this reflects a poor (but popular) translation. It should read more like, we are saved by Jesus' faith in the Father. Something like that. I am not Christian so I may be messing this up. But I have heard Christians insist on faith in Jesus. That might be correct Christian doctrine today, but the texts say something else in the original. The professor makes that quite apparent.

The professor made an error when talking about circumcision making Jewish males superior over women. He attempted to prove this by quoting the first few blessings of the Birkot Hashahar (The 15 Blessings) where we thank God for several things such as:

1. [...] who has given to the cock intelligence to distinguish between day and night.
2. [...] who has not made me a heathen.
3. [...] who has not made me a bondman.
4.
Men say:
[...] who has not made me a woman.
Women say:
[...] who has made me according to thy will.

Of course, the first three blessings apply both to men and women. Perhaps the professor mentioned them in order to remind the listener what he was talking about. (I doubt it, though. I just quoted them. Did YOU snap your fingers and say, "Oh! I know those blessings!" Yeah. I didn't think so.)

Then he mentions the 4th blessing when I thank God for not having made me a woman. I once attended a morning minyan that happened to be attended by men only. After the prayers I asked the men what they thought they were thankful for when they thanked God for not making them a woman. Several answered immediately that they we grateful that God had given them more commandments to observe than women. Indeed, that is what I am thinking when I recite that blessing. It was unanimous. Being a male is not better in the view of God. It's just different.

Have I seen Orthodox males being careless about a woman's role in the community? Yes, I have, but that does not translate as superior. It's just really, really insensitive. That is not an exclusive failing of Orthodox Jewish males.

In any case, like most Christians, the professor has an odd misconception about Judaism, but then again, he is mostly talking about Christianity. From that point of view the professor does a marvelous job. But I am not a Christian. Therefore I found this course well done but not entirely what I am looking for in terms of an academic history of Saint Paul. It might be for you, though. Give it a try.

I'm not sure if I will listen to the audio course again. I will probably listen to other courses by this professor though.

[William Adam Reed · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third Great Courses series that I have finished by Luke Timothy Johnson. He is a clear speaker and very knowledgeable about his subject matter. These are 12 lectures on the Apostle Paul. Dr. Johnson spends most of the twelve lectures addressing a specific letter that Paul has written, for example a lecture on Romans, then a lecture on Galatians, ect. Sometimes he will use one lecture to address both 1-2 Thessalonians for example.

I found myself mostly satisfied with these lectures. However, I also wanted perhaps a little more out of these lectures. 12 lectures may not be enough to do full justice to the topic. Johnson spends quite a bit of the time on the authorship question, but he also addresses the specific issues that are unique to each of the letters that Paul writes. Johnson does not believe that Paul's writings are Scripture in the sense that they are God's word, which differs from my viewpoint. He does believe that Paul's letters are authentically from Paul (or at least under his supervision). These lectures are intended for someone who would like to know more about the life and writings of Paul.

[Don Heiman · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 2001 The Teaching Company released Prof Luke Timothy Johnson’s course “The Apostle Paul.” The 12 lecture 7 hour audio course includes an outstanding course guide. The guide has course lecture summaries, Saint Paul biographic time lines, glossary of terms, and an exceptional annotated bibliography. Johnson has a number of degrees including a Doctorate in New Testament From Yale University. In 2001 he was Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins from Emory University Candler School of Theology. The course begins with Pauline themes, life events, and early Christian faith/community formations. From this foundation, Prof Johnson presents the features of Pauline letters Paul wrote to the community and house churches of the Thessalonians, Corinthians, Galatians, and Romans. The course concludes with lectures on St Paul’s writing styles; his theological perspectives, and his influence on centuries of Christian New Testament thoughts and faith practices. (P)

[Lindsay Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

After listening to The Bible in a Year, I was curious to find out more about Paul the Apostle. I found this Great Course in the Audible Plus catalog.
The lecturer is a professor at Emory University and his lectures are more academic than many Great Courses. You have to be pretty familiar with Paul's writings to benefit from the course.
The 12 lectures cover what is known about Paul's life, how to interpret his writings, an overview of early Christianity, analysis of his letters, and Paul's influence on Christianity going forward.
The approach is even handed, covering Paul's flaws as well as his insights. I learned more about why he wrote his letters at the time and how they were received. I'd still like to know more as I don't really feel I know Paul the person, but maybe this is all that can be known about someone who lived 2000 years ago.

[Steve Shelby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Talks about Paul the Apostle and the epistles in the New Testament. Luke Timothy Johnson’s speaking style seem affected in an elitist scholar way which is somewhat annoying. He makes Thurston Howell seem rather casual. His analysis of Paul’s epistles just about all I’ve read. Bart Ehrman covers it briefly in the History: Making of the New Testament. They have commonalities and differences. His narrative is not particularly engaging. There were insights here and there, but I wasn’t intrigued per se. There was one interesting point about a potential mistranslation of a quote from Paul about salvation based on faith in Jesus alone or based on Jesus’s faith (in God) alone. He thinks it’s the later. It sort of negates the faith in Jesus alone to faith in God (as Jesus believed in him) alone.

[Arliegh Kovacs · Rating 3 out of 5]

The lectures in this Great Courses class give a cultural slant to the letters of Paul in the New Testament. I learned new things and looked at them from a different perspective. Professor Johnson was knowledgeable about his subject. He has a great speaking voice (to me that's important when I'm listening to a book on CD.) However, it seemed to me that his view of Paul basically 'inventing Christianity' as his letters became more doctrinal was a bit off-putting. He also gave his opinions that even those letters that are believed, by most Biblical scholars, are not written by Paul are somehow, actually authored by him. While Professor Johnson made a solid case for Paul's trying to fit what he was saying in a manner that could be accepted in the beliefs that his converts could understand and champion based on the things they already had experience with, he didn't seem to take into account that the earliest copies of the letters often had instances of where ideas which weren't in later versions and that some of these teachings were added later by copyists.
It was, however, a series worth listening to.

[Angelina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this course. It is very well documented and presented in a very informative manner. I have just one comment, but maybe that is how the course was designed. Being about one of the greatest apostles of Christianity, who is celebrated in many countries together with Peter the Apostle, I would have appreciated more details about why, in over 2000 years, this man never ceased to mean so much to Christians all over the world.

[Colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative, but not what I was looking for. Paul was en route to persecute Christians and was zapped with more insight and knowledge than the disciples. I’m just so intrigued with that concept.

Any suggestions anyone?

[Brian White · Rating 3 out of 5]

Luke Timothy Johnson spends a lot of time without saying anything original. There was a lot of good material, some conclusions I disagreed with, but overall I was struck by the dullness of the presentation.

[Pam White · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent scholarly lecture on the Apostle Paul's writings. I don't always agree with LTJ's views on Paul's letters, however he speaks with real authority & perspective. Important considering how much St Paul has influenced Christian teachings in the western world.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like how the author knows that Paul is a central figure in modern-day Christianity. If you don't understand Paul, you won't understand the modern churches. He makes Paul easier to understand!

[Ryan Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked his approach to the Pauline letters--he accepts most of them as legitimate against the weight of other scholars, and he explains why. I feel like I understand Paul a bit better, as a person, as an apostle, and as a missionary.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Johnson has a non-traditional view of Paul and his letters that he has formed from years of teaching the New Testament that all Biblical exegetes should to be exposed to. He places Paul and his writings very clearly in the 1st century context and lets that guide his understanding.

[Gail Burgess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paul has never been my favorite apostle, but this CD made him more likeable. :-)

[Purple Wimple]

Bravo for entertaining (even propounding) a plaudible reading for Paul's authorship of more than seven epistles...

[Susan Heim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know more about Paul than when I started but listening on audio not much “sticks” - this was a great accompaniment to the Bible study of Paul’s letter that my church small group was doing.

[Петр Федичев · Rating 5 out of 5]

The life of Jesus may have inspired Christianity, but the world religion as we know it now is the product of Paul.

[Scott Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like his lectures. Very informative and insightful.

[Bill Dauster · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent, lucid exposition of Paul's writings, which the author argues have proved more influential than Plato in the Western tradition

[Christina Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learned a lot!

[Elizabeth Erickson · Rating 4 out of 5]

12 lectues and course book. Very educational and enjoyable.