@article{Shepherd:1451,
      recid = {1451},
      author = {Soyars, Jonathan Everett},
      title = {The Shepherd of Hermas and the Pauline Legacy},
      publisher = {University of Chicago},
      school = {Ph.D.},
      address = {2017-08},
      pages = {359},
      abstract = {This dissertation argues that Hermas, the author the  Shepherd, was meaningfully influenced by a corpus of  Pauline letters. Chapter One demonstrates that the Shepherd  was probably written at Rome in the first few decades of  the second century C.E., when Pauline letters were  increasingly known and accruing authority among Christians  there and beyond. The Shepherd presents Hermas as at least  semi-literate, and he could plausibly have read Pauline  letters himself or heard them read or discussed by his  fellow Christians in various settings. Chapter Two analyzes  the history of scholarship, showing how the minimalist  consensus that solidified in the modern period, according  to which Hermas probably knew only Ephesians and maybe 1  Corinthians, constitutes a reversal of ancient views and  reflects not only the acceptance of multiple methodological  false dichotomies but also the widespread adoption of an  unduly restrictive reading strategy that inevitably  restricts the likelihood of ever detecting a meaningful  encounter. It then presents a new interpretive approach  that potentially uncovers fresh evidence of Hermas’s  engagement with Pauline letters. Focusing on the Mandates,  Similitudes, and Visions sections, respectively, Chapters  Three through Five explore Pauline intertexts in the  Shepherd, demonstrating that Hermas adopted, adapted, and  synthesized identifiable parts of the corpus Paulinum,  including both authentic epistles (1 Thessalonians, 1-2  Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, and Romans) and  pseudepigraphic ones (Colossians, Ephesians, and the  Pastoral Epistles), as well as Hebrews. Much of what was  foundational for the apostle and his pseudepigraphers was  foundational for Hermas too. He discussed major and minor  topics and theological themes developed across the corpus  through time. He connected relevant parts of different  Pauline letters and interpreted them in light of each  other. He also implicitly participated in particular  Paulinist debates, using specifically Pauline terms.  Therefore, Hermas fully deserves the label of Pauline  interpreter. He carefully and creatively engaged traditions  preserved in Pauline letters, and he also interpreted (and  corrected) his own experience and the experience of other  Roman Christians in light of those letters. This  recognition reorients scholarly study of the Shepherd by  reconnecting it with a major current in early Christian  thought, thereby expanding the sphere of Pauline influence  in the second century C.E. even to texts that do not name  the apostle or quote letters attributed to him at length.},
      url = {http://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/1451},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.6082/uchicago.1451},
}