Alias Paulus: de grondlegger van het christendom a

by Thijs Voskuilen

Saul of Tarsus is one of the best known and most beloved figures of Christianity. This man, later known as St. Paul, set the tone for Christianity, including an emphasis on celibacy, the theory of divine grace and salvation, and the elimination of circumcision. It was Paul who wrote a large part of the New Testament, and who called it euangelion, "the gospel". There is another side of Paul, however, that has been little studied and that is his connection to the Roman military establishment and its intelligence arm. While other scholars and writers have suggested the idea that Paul was cooperating with the Romans, this is the first book-length study to document it in detail. By looking at the traditional story through a new lens, some of the thorniest questions and contradictions in Paul's life can be unravelled. How did he come to work for the Temple authorities who collaborated with the Romans? How was he able to escape from legal situations in which others would have been killed? Why were so many Jews trying to have Paul killed and to which sect did they belong? These and other mysteries will be solved as the authors follow Paul's career and his connections to Roman intelligence.

Genres: History

Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Scallie]

Open uw ogen. Nil Novi sub Sole. De CIA heeft haar mosterd ergens gehaald.

[Jay Bird · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, this was an interesting book, as the subject of Paul has fascinated me for many years. But it missed in a few areas. The writing was not up to professional standards for a history of religion. It read more like a not-peered reviewed master's thesis. The research was decent, but the same ideas were repeated from chapter to chapter. It was also very speculative, which is quite unfortunate as the subject matter is not at all pseudohistory. Despite its flaws, I am giving it three stars for originality. There is certainly something dubious about the so-called "saint" Paul, and this book brings that concern to the surface via a novel line of investigation that I have not found in other publications.

[Krijn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written as a master thesis after the author lived and studied in the United States for a while. He was amazed so many people still held religious beliefs in the US, even within universities (or at least, that's what I remember from an interview more than 10 years ago in the University Press from the University of Groningen where the author studied (and me too))