Summary of in-class book review given on 17 March 1997 by Patrick S Danner

Matlock, R. Barry. Unveiling the Apocalyptic Paul: Paul's Interpreters 
	and the Rhetoric of Criticism. (Sheffield Academic Press 1996)

[This book is a revision of the author's 1993 University of Sheffield
doctoral thesis.] 

Traces the examination of Paul, from Schweitzer to Dodd to Bultmann to 
Cullmann to Kasemann, as the view of the apostle shifts from 
eschatological to apocalyptic. Discusses especially how the insights of 
these and other various experts relate to each other (intentionally or 
not) to attempt to illustrate how the current sense of Paul as 
apocalyptic evolved.

Continues on to a critique of the analysis of interpreting things 
apocalyptic. Definition of the term, consideration of it as a genre, and 
the need to address the setting in which such a work was written are all 
surveyed. These are then observed in his examination of J.C. Beker and 
other current investigations of an apocalyptic Paul.

The book closes with a reflection on hermeneutics in general, and is 
somewhat disconnected from the rest of the work.


Patrick Danner
pdanner@mail.sas.upenn.edu

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