ABSTRACT
In 1989, Victor Paul Furnish could report about the state of Pauline studies that the analysis of the Pauline congregations had finally displaced “biographical” questions about Paul. He wrote:
Although the standard “biographical” questions about Paul are still debated, these have in general been subordinated to questions about the Pauline congregations and his interaction with them as apostle. One may judge this to be an altogether proper and indeed overdue refocusing of questions about Paul’s life and ministry. It is Paul’s interaction with his congregations, after all, for which his letters supply primary data-not for the reconstruction of his pre-Christian life, or for his theology in some systematic sense, or even, in the first instance, for his missionary preaching.1
