Gerd Theissen: 2 books

Gerd Theissen describes the emergence of the New Testament canon out of the wide variety of early Christian literature, drawing on Max Weber’s discussion of the evolution of religious organizations. Theissen describes a series of phases in the life of the early Christian movement: the charismatic, the “pseudepigraphic,” the “functional,” and the “canonical.”

The field of New Testament studies often appears splintered into widely different specializations and narrowly defined research projects. Nevertheless, some of the most important insights have come about when curious men and women have defied disciplinary boundaries and drawn on other fields of knowledge...