Paul of Tarsus

This is the blog of Kevin Scull a 4th year Ph.D. student at UCLA, under Dr. S. Scott Bartchy, who is currently working on his dissertation.  I am intending this blog to focus on Paul of Tarsus, however I imagine the scope will be broader, covering my interests which include: NT, Historical Jesus, Apostolic Fathers, papyrology and many others.  Additionally, I am intending this blog to be one that focuses more on scholarship and my posts will focus on book reviews and historical analysis of Paul’s letters.  However, I will certainly be unable to restrain myself from including non-scholarly material as well.  Most importantly as the title suggests, I stress the importance of understanding Paul in his historical context in my work and will emphasize this approach in my blog.  There will not be much material about interpreting Paul for the modern Christian but there will certainly be analysis concerning how Paul and his followers understood him.  As an example of how I attempt to understand Paul in his historical context, currently I am teaching History 97 K at UCLA: Paul, the New Testament, and Ancient Letter Writing.  In this class I stress the importance of understanding Paul  as one who did not write theological treatises but rather as one who wrote letters.  I hope you enjoy the blog as much as I will enjoy writing it!