DESCRIPTION

Although many readers of Paul’s letters recognize how important his experience was to his life and thought, biblical scholars have not generally addressed this topic head-on. Colleen Shantz argues that they have been held back both by a bias against religious ecstasy and by the limits of the biblical texts: How do you responsibly access someone else’s experience, particularly an experience as unusual and debated as religious ecstasy? And how do you responsibly account for the role of experience in that person’s thought? Paul in Ecstasy pursues these questions through a variety of disciplines – most notably neuroscience. This study provides cogent explanations for bewildering passages in Paul’s letters, outlines a much greater influence of such experience in Paul’s life and letters, and points to its importance in Christian origins.

Colleen Shantz is assistant professor of New Testament studies in the Faculty of Theology at the University of St. Michael’s College and at the Toronto School of Theology, the consortium of seven theological schools at the University of Toronto.