“I return to Schütz’s work with pleasure: how sophisticated this was—and is. To put it bluntly, how much more careful and illuminating and persuasive it is than so much that has been written since then at the border between the social sciences and the study of ancient Christianity and its texts. . . . He pushes us to think along with him and with the texts he expounds, to pursue again the elusive rationale from which they spring. It is for this reason that I can invite a reader today to discover the treasures of this book appearing again after a third of a century. Not that it is an easy read: it is a scholarly monograph that makes no pretense of being popular. Yet its simple elegance, the directness and clarity of its arguments, touched by flashes of sardonic humor that every acquaintance of John Schütz will recognize, are immensely appealing.”
—Wayne A. Meeks, from the new introduction
John Howard Schütz’s milestone analysis of Paul’s authority shaped a generation of scholars in how to think about Paul. First appearing in 1975, this volume has long been unavailable, but it stands as a significant voice that scholarship today needs to hear.
John Howard Schütz taught New Testament at University of North Carolina, Charlotte.
Wayne A. Meeks is Woolsey Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at Yale University.
