These exercises in "historical imagination" are based on historical data while using the imagination to view and understand those data in a new way. To do the essays well, you must imaginatively enter into each historical situation—feel the dust, taste the salt sea breeze, hear and smell the animals in the market, see the veiled women and bronzed men, experience the ambiguity of being free and respected in the Christian community yet oppressed in society. You also must be very familiar with the data itself—i.e., the theology of the Pauline letters, and our knowledge of the social, cultural, economic, and political environments of the letters’ recipients.

To support your point of view, do as much explicit discussion of the Pauline corpus as possible. Each paper should cite and discuss at least five specific texts from Paul or the Pauline traditions.

1. You are an early Christian woman, baptized in Galatia. From there you went to Corinth to preach about Jesus. You have been teaching what you learned from Paul: that those who are baptized "have put on Christ [in whom] there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female; for all are one in Christ Jesus." Now the church at Corinth has received a letter from Paul which teaches that "the head of a woman is her husband" (1 Cor 11:3) and that "woman is the glory of man" (1 Cor 11:7). It also reminds you that "by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit" (I Cor 12:13), but it omits the unity and equality of "male and female" that you were taught in Galatia. What will you teach your community about how to respond to this apparent shift in Paul's teaching?

2. You are a Christian freedwoman, originally from Colossae, now doing missionary work in Asia Minor. Following the precedent of the case of Onesimus, your community considered your baptism to entail legal emancipation. Now one of your churches has received a copy of the First Letter to Timothy, which claims Paul's authority for telling baptized slaves to remain submissive to their masters, even if they are Christians (1 Tim 6:1-5). The church is confused by this doctrine because they learned that Paul taught that "he who was called in the Lord as a slave is a freedman of the Lord" (I Cor 7:22a). Also, they know Jesus' saying that Christians are not to "lord it over" one another (Luke 22:24-26; cf. Rom 12:16 and 2 Cor 1:24). What will you teach your community about how to respond to this dilemma?

3. You are a Christian in Asia Minor at the end of the first century CE. Knowing what you do about the teachings of Paul and his disciples, what will you do when faced with the situation which gave rise to 2 Thessalonians, the Apocalypse, and the Acts of Paul and Thecla? The author of 2 Thess says, "mind your own affairs" so as not to "rock the boat." The author of the Apocalypse urges separatism and strict adherence to Christian beliefs and practice. The author of the Acts of Paul and Thecla encourages confrontation with Greco-Roman society and potential martyrdom. Which of these emphases do you think has more support in Paul's theology?

Samples for review:

1. A B
2. A B C
3. A