Paul the Letter-Writer

His World, His Options, His Skills

by Jerome Murphy-O'Connor

How did Paul use his secretaries?  Did he rely on co-authors? Did his rhetorical education affect the way he organized his material? This unusual book confronts these questions on the basis of extensive quotations from classical Greek and Latin authors.  A synoptic survey of the beginnings and ends of the letters brings out the extent to which Paul both used and adapted current epistolary conventions.  At the same time it draws attention to his mood while writing and to his relations with the recipients.  The effect is to humanize the Pauline letters and make their complex theology less daunting.

Liturgical Press, 1995

152 pages