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James D. G. Dunn, Paul the Apostle: His Life and Legacy in their Roman Context. By J. A lbert H arrill, The Journal of Theological Studies, Volume 66, Issue 2, October 2015, Pages 779–781, https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/flv034
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T his is a well-conceived book which seeks not simply to trace the life and work of Paul, but also to take account of Paul as diversely perceived in legend and in church history. Its principal focus and contribution to studies of Paul is the emphasis on Paul’s Roman identity, both as comes across in his letters, focusing on ‘his particularly Roman discourse of authority’ (p. 1), and in the way he was subsequently regarded. Harrill offers ‘many different Pauls rather than “the” Paul’ (p. 3).
The book is representative of an influential segment of Pauline scholarship, which regards the ‘authentic’ letters of Paul as the only source of information about Paul’s life and mission, and the Acts of the Apostles as fiction. Only seven letters attributed to Paul can be called on, with 2 Corinthians made up of five or six fragments, though the questions of how fragments were preserved and brought together, or why different letters should have been reduced to fragments and put together as a single letter are never raised. And such discussion as there is (there are no footnotes) is almost solely with other members of the same segment (bibliography too), with no attempt made to engage with wider, including non-English language scholarship.
