Paul in Ecstasy The Neurobiology of the Apostle's Life and Thought [Hardcover]

Colleen Shantz addresses the role of religious experience in Paul's life and letters, demonstrating its importance in Christian origins.Biblical scholars have failed to address sufficiently the role of experience in Pauls letters. Colleen Shantz pursues the topic of religious ecstasy through a variety of disciplines  most notably neuroscience  explaining bewildering passages in Pauls letters, as well as demonstrating the significant influence of experience in his life and in Christian origins.Biblical scholars have failed to address sufficiently the role of experience in Pauls letters. Colleen Shantz pursues the topic of religious ecstasy through a variety of disciplines  most notably neuroscience  explaining bewildering passages in Pauls letters, as well as demonstrating the significant influence of experience in his life and in Christian origins.While many readers of Pauls 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 elses experience, particularly experience as unusual and debated as religious ecstasy? And how do you account responsibly for the role of experience in that persons thought? Paul in Ecstasy pursues these questions through a variety of disciplines  most notably neuroscience. This study provides cogent explanations for bewildering passages in Pauls letters, outlines a much greater influence of such experience in Pauls life and letters, and points to its importance in Christian origins.Introduction; 1. What ecstasy?: an assessment of the misregard; 2. Paul's brain: the cognitive neurology of ecstasy; 3. Paul's voice: parsing Paul's ecstatic discourse; 4. Paul's practice: discerning ecstasies in practice; 5. The whole Paul: a short course in (non-deterministic) complexity.Paul#-