Harvard Divinity School professor Laura Nasrallah is teaching a free, online course called Early Christianity: The Letters of Paul. When I first learned about it, I assumed it would be more of interest to those who participate on Christianity.SE than this site. However, the primary focus seems to be right up our alley:
The letters of Paul are the earliest texts in the Christian scriptures, written by a Jew at a time when the word “Christian” hadn’t yet been coined. What is the religious and political context into which they emerged? How were they first interpreted?
I think it would be interesting to host hermeneutics questions raised by the course on this site. Obviously there are likely to be many application question that are not appropriate for this site. In the course of doing the readings and assignments, I expect to have questions that would be good to ask here.
Perhaps more importantly, the course should expose students to excellent scholarship. It might be useful for many of us who have not had formal educations in the field to learn how academics address and understand the texts which are our topic.
Finally, the coursework requires considerable interaction between students. I expect some of the students of such a course would be excellent contributors to this site. The introductory video makes clear that all perspectives are welcome, which aligns with our long-standing goals.
