Religious Studies 015
Prof. Robert Kraft
Week #13 (April 15-17, 2003) Notes

Tuesday 15 April 2003

Thu, 17 Apr 2003 (RAK summary)

In class today, apart from the usual digressions and frivolities, we looked a bit at Paul's relative formality in Romans (compared to 1-2 Corinthians), his reason for writing to the Roman group (not "church" in the sense of a building and related institution), and the possibility that he never did get to Spain as he intended. I also commented a bit on the discussion among scholars about the authorship of especially the "pastoral" epistles (1-2 Timothy, Titus).

Then we looked at the remaining "letters" in the NT (see the list on my "canonical" literature page) -- those attributed to Peter (vast differences in style and tone between 1 and 2 Peter), to John (2-3 John as actual short letters rather than elongated treatise/letters), to Jacob/James (considered canonical but with less authority by Luther -- "a right strawy epistle" -- for it's challenge to the Pauline idea of "salvation by faith alone"), and to Jude (very similar in part to 2 Peter).

Next time we finish up with Hebrews and Revelation; then to the Museum.

//end of week #13 class notes//