Religious Studies

As institutions of the state, publicly funded schools are obliged to remain neutral. At the same time, their educational mandate is not limited to the teaching of specialised knowledge. Schools are also places where values are formed. The contributors to this volume undertake an interdisciplinary reflection on this dimension of schools.

Inter-congregational connections profoundly shaped the Pauline mission. Christoph W. Stenschke provides the first comprehensive analysis of these connections in the seven generally acknowledged authentic Pauline letters. He examines their various forms as well as their rhetorical function and historical plausibility within the epistolary context.

Ruben van Wingerden explores how early Christians interpreted Jesus' call to »carry one's cross« and shows how early Christian readers, operating within diverse cultural and theological contexts, expanded and reshaped the meaning of cross-bearing from its New Testament origins into a rich and multifaceted tradition.

Discovered in 1945 at Nag Hammadi, the Coptic Gospel of Thomas ranks among the most significant apocryphal writings of early Christianity. Long regarded as a loose collection of sayings, Stephanie Janz adopts a new approach: tracing catchwords and recurring motifs to interpret the logia within the context of the whole text.