‘Puzzling out’ Paul
At the time when the apostle Paul was writing the letters that would become some of the earliest texts in the Christian scriptures, the world was “full of gods … almost a forest of statues,” according to Laura Nasrallah, professor of New Testament and early Christianity at the Harvard Divinity School. In addition to the Roman pantheon, in a move that elevated the power of the state and encouraged the faith of the masses, political leaders were often deified after their deaths — and all were on show in public statuary. “You really met a god on every street corner,” Nasrallah said. Understanding that Roman world of multiple gods, many cultures, political oppression, slavery, and economic inequality is critical to any in-depth appreciation of these earliest Christian texts, Nasrallah told a crowd of more than 60 members of the greater Allston-Brighton community at the Harvard Allston Education Portal. During her May 14 discussion, she...