Anya Topolski

Emmanuel Nathan

The term ‘Judeo-Christian’ in reference to a tradition, heritage, ethic, civilization, faith etc. has been used in a wide variety of contexts with widely diverging meanings. Contrary to popular belief, the term was not coined in the United States in the middle of the 20th century but in 1831 in Germany by Ferdinand Christian Baur. By acknowledging and returning to this European perspective and context, the volume engages the historical, theological, philosophical and political dimensions of the term’s development. Scholars of European intellectual history will find this volume timely and relevant.

A European Perspective

Is there a Judeo-Christian Tradition?

Emmanuel Nathan's study is driven by the hermeneutical question of whether the covenantal contrasts in 2 Cor 3, in which Paul's use of 'new covenant' in 2 Cor 3:6 is set in stark polemical antithesis to an 'old covenant' (2 Cor 3:14), lie at the origin of the later Christian self-understanding as members of a new covenant that replaced the old. In other words, can Paul be said to be the founder of formative 'Christianity', even if one nuances the term 'Christianity' as a sect within the Judaisms of Paul's time? Using social memory theory, the author reframes the larger question of Paul's continuity or discontinuity with Judaism and seeks instead to examine the ways in which Paul refracted, redeployed, and reconfigured existing traditions in service of local needs, among them the formation and transformation of character among his community at Corinth.

A Different Perspective on 2 Corinthians 3

Re-membering the New Covenant at Corinth

Reimund Bieringer

Didier Pollefeyt

Peter J Tomson

In the framework of a larger research project into ‘New Perspectives on Paul and the Jews’, eight scholars from Europe, Israel, and North America join forces in querying Paul’s relationship to Jews and Judaism. The sample text selected for this inquiry is the Second Letter to the Corinthians, a document particularly suited for this purpose as it reflects violent clashes between Paul and rivalling Jews and Jewish Christians

Emmanuel Nathan

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