This is the first of two week 6 discussion questions from my Spring 2022 course Understanding the Bible as a Progressive Christian through Pathways Theological Education.
Identify the genre and Sitz im Leben (literally, “setting in life”; the many contexts that shape a work, e.g., geography, historical era, purpose, et.c.) of Galatians.
Galatians is a pastoral epistle. That is to say, a letter specifically written for the purpose of meeting the needs of a set of Christians in following their faith in their day to day life. It was written by Paul to the members of churches he had originally founded but was now getting (bad) advice from other sources. Like many of Paul's churches, these churches were predominantly made up of gentiles who had started following Christ. We know from 2:1 that it occurs after his meeting with the apostles in Jerusalem which is occurred around 49 CE, likely late 40's to early 50's CE. These churches were likely in the Roman province of Galatia. Although we don't know specifically were these churches were, we do know from Acts that in Galatia, Paul completed missionary work in Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe. The purpose of the letter was to correct errors in the church members' Christian walk based on advice they received from later missionaries who were encouraging them to be more Jewish - convert to Judaism (including circumcision) and generally follow the Torah, or law. At this point in early Christian history, the movement was trying to determine whether or not it was a part of Judaism or separate and if separate to what extent.
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