Search results for ""Author Paul Foster""

Paul Foster contributes to Matthean scholarship by looking at the issues of the social location of the community, the role of law within that community and its attitude towards the gentile mission. Against the current trend towards viewing the community behind the gospel as a primarily Jewish separatist group with the central belief that Jesus was the Messiah, he comes to the conclusion that although the Matthean group originated in Judaism, nonetheless, by the time of the composition of the gospel, the community functioned outside the confines of its original locus operandi. Specifically, that at the time of the writing of the gospel a major breach had occurred between the Matthean communities and the synagogues from which the original core of the evangelist's believers in Jesus had emerged. Consequently the group was now focussing its attention on recruiting new members from among gentiles, and the integration of recent non-Jewish converts created a number of tensions for long term traditionally Torah observant group members. Therefore the topics of community, law and mission in Matthew's gospel are not treated as separate entities, but as interrelated parts of an overarching whole.The gospel has both pastoral and pedagogical aims: Pastorally, to reassure group members of the correctness of the decision to break with synagogue based Judaism and pedagogically, to teach the community that the risen Jesus instructs the group to engage fully in Gentile mission.

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This Very Short Introduction offers a clear, accessible, and concise account of the apocryphal gospels - exploring their origins, their discovery, and discussing how the various texts have been interpreted both by the Church and beyond. Looking at texts from the Gospels from Nag Hammadi to the Dialogues with the Risen Saviour, Paul Foster shows how the apocryphal gospels reflect the diversity that existed within early Christianity, and examines the extent to which they can be used to reconstruct an accurate portrait of the historical Jesus. Including discussions of controversies and case-studies such as the alleged hoax surrounding the discovery of Secret Mark, Foster concludes that the non-canonical texts, considered in the correct context, offer us an important window on the vibrant and multi-faceted face of early Christianity. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

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