{"product_id":"counting-paul-scientificity-fuzzy-math-and-ideology-in-pauline-studies-9780197802243","title":"Counting Paul: Scientificity, Fuzzy Math, and Ideology in Pauline Studies","description":"Who wrote the Pauline Epistles? For nearly 1,700 years the answer seemed fairly straightforward. The New Testament canon set the boundary at thirteen (or fourteen, including Hebrews) Pauline Epistles, alongside an uncontroversial biographical framework within which to imagine them in Acts. In the early nineteenth century the identification of the historical Paul with the canonical Paul was severed when theologian Ferdinand Christian Baur of the University of T?bingen laid the groundwork for the fundamental historiographical moves that still orient Pauline Studies as a critical discipline by both delimiting the number of authentic Pauline Epistles and highlighting the tendentious character of Acts' portrayal of Paul. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eGiven the highly uncertain and subjective nature of so much of the argumentation over the authenticity of the Pauline Epistles as it developed in the nineteenth century, the analysis of authorial style took on increasing weight as a way out of so many special decisions. The linguistic features of texts were counted, averaged, and compared. In measuring one text against another, the Pauline stylome emerged as the incontrovertible standard for uncovering canonical forgeries in the Apostle's name. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTracing the long history of the computational approach to the Pauline authorship problem, \u003cem\u003e Counting Paul \u003c\/em\u003eexposes the ideological foundations and questionable science of much of the work and argues that Pauline biography ought not be written from fewer sources than what the New Testament has given us, but rather more. It advocates for a more expansive vision of what might count as Pauline by reorienting our focus away from internal criteria, like appeals to style, and toward external criteria, like the reception of Paul in the generations after his death.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBenjamin L. White \u003c\/strong\u003eis Associate Professor of Religion, Department of Philosophy and Religion at Clemson University. His first book, \u003cem\u003e Remembering Paul \u003c\/em\u003e(2014, OUP), explored how Paul becomes an object of knowledge. His articles have appeared in the \u003cem\u003eJournal for the Study of the New Testament\u003c\/em\u003e, the \u003cem\u003eJournal of Early Christian Studies, Catholic Biblical Quarterly\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eVigiliae christianae\u003c\/em\u003e. He co-chairs the Historical Paul section of the Society of Biblical Literature and serves on the editorial board of the \u003cem\u003eJournal of Theological Studies\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Oxford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51298369175826,"sku":"9780197802243","price":103.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_5272586c-8c09-449e-b02d-1c74cdb2d77e.jpg?v=1747817770","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/counting-paul-scientificity-fuzzy-math-and-ideology-in-pauline-studies-9780197802243","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}