What We Do

ICJS Fall Mini-Course

Rescuing Paul

A course taught by
Janis L. Koch

For the past two thousand years, most Christians and many Jews have understood the Apostle Paul to have been a Jew who, following a startling revelation of Jesus Christ, renounced his ancestral religion, attacked the validity of the Mosaic Law, insisted on justification through faith in Christ, and ultimately became the found-er of Christianity. Paul's letters were incorporated into the New Testament and the precepts found in them were woven into the fabric of Christian theology and dogma. Unfortunately, Christians also employed "Pauline" theology in the service of slavery, second-class citizen-ship for women, and the theological anti-Judaism that helped to lay the foundations on which the Nazi death camps were built.

But is this understanding of Paul and his theology accu-rate? Is this fire-breathing convert to Christianity the real Paul? Is Paul the author of an ultimately tri-umphalistic theology or the victim of two thousand years of exegetical abuse? In the past several decades there have been exciting developments in Pauline studies. The Paul now emerging is quite different from the Paul that dominates most of the Christian, and Jewish tradition. A far more widespread understanding of the "new" Paul is vitally important, both for the health of Christianity and for the advancement of Jewish-Christian relations.

The Institute for Christian & Jewish Studies is pleased to present a mini-course designed to introduce the "new" Paul to Christians and Jews who may or may not be familiar with the "old" Paul. In our study we will search for the man behind the myth in the Pauline letters and in the Acts of the Apostles; redefine some central Pauline concepts -- gospel, law, faith, righteousness -- in the light of the discoveries of recent scholarship; apply what we have learned to a reading of selected passages of Paul's most important epistle, the Letter to the Romans; and examine some of the implications of our study for Christianity and Judaism. The investigation into the life and thought of this highly influential and controversial leader in the first-century Jesus movement will combine instruction with ample text study.

Janis L. Koch worked professionally as a linguist and grammarian. She holds an M.A. in Theology, specializing in Jewish-Christian Relations, has been affiliated with the ICJS for the past twelve years, and currently manages the ICJS Web site. Rescuing Paul has been her passion for more than a dozen years.

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