2 Timothy and Titus Reconsidered: Der 2. Timotheus- und der Titusbrief in neuem Licht

After discussing 1 Timothy in the 19th Colloquium Oecumenicum

Paulinum in 2006 (published as COP 18), the 21st Colloquium

devoted itself to 2 Timothy and Titus. About 30 international Pauline

scholars gathered in the Abbey of St. Paul Outside the Walls in Rome

between 14 and 18 September 2010 for scholarly exchanges and discussion

of seven scholarly papers on the chapters of 2 Timothy and Titus. In

this volume (COP 20) these papers written in French, English and German

by famous scholars from Orthodox, Protestant and Catholic traditions are

edited and made available to the larger scholarly community. After a

synthesis of the discussion presented in the book (Bieringer), four

scholars each focus on one chapter of 2 Timothy (2 Tim 1: Wolter; 2 Tim

2: Gourgues; 2 Tim 3: Karakolis and 2 Tim 4: MacDonald). The Letter to

Titus is divided into two parts which are each treated in one study (Tit

1-2: Flichy and Tit 3: Herzer). The book concludes with a thematic study

on God’s philanthropy and human works touching on both letters (Penna).

In this way the seven studies of this book treat 2 Timothy and Titus

from beginning to end similar to a commentary. It is, however, a

commentary that displays great diversity of approaches, methods,

presuppositions. In the process of commenting on the texts, they also

make a contribution to the highly significant recent discussion on the

corpus theory and the question of authenticity.