Paul, Founder of Churches
A Study in Light of the Evidence for the Role of "Founder-Figures" in the Hellinistic-Roman Period
Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament No. 292
By James Constantine Hanges
December 2012
Mohr Siebeck
Distributed By Coronet Books Inc.
ISBN: 9783161507168 
573 pages
$250.00 Hardcover
Paul's understanding of his role as the founder of Christian cults in new territories is neither unique nor can they explain themselves adequately by Jewish predecessors. James Constantine slope shows how Paul makes the Greek model of the founder of the human key figure in Greek foundation narratives, creative ways to own. Epigraphic and literary descriptions show that start-ups have been made according to a certain pattern, which was common for Greek foundation narratives - the oracular selection of the founder and his ultimate obedience were embodied in the success of his cult of renovation. A postcolonial reading shows that Paul took on the role of the Greek founder, in order to use it for self-definition. He used although a few technical foundation terms, but his trust in divine election as an affirmation of his mediation of Jesus' teaching, the way he exercises authority over its churches and its integration of the Greeks in the sacred history of Israel confirm the use of the Greek model.
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