According to the narrative of Acts, Saul is being introduced to the world of Rome in Cyprus by meeting the proconsul Sergius Paulus in Paphos. It is also here that for the first time his other name, Παῦλος (Paul), is mentioned and that the focus on his role in the Christ-movement for those from the nations moves to center stage. The Roman aspect of Saul/ Paul’s activities is developed from here on by the author of Acts, with numerous further encounters with Roman officials (e.g., Acts 21:37-39; 24:10-27; 25:6-12), to eventually culminate in Saul/Paul’s arrival and proclamation of the gospel with courage unhindered in Rome itself (Acts 28:31). I will argue in this chapter that in the narrative strategy of Acts, the events in Cyprus are presented as a crucial stepping stone on Paul’s way into the world of Rome and the spreading of the gospel to the center of political power.

Ekkehard W. Stegemanns Lebenswerk hat einprägsame Spuren sowohl im wissenschaftlichen wie auch im öffentlichen Bereich hinterlassen. Es sind Spuren, die von hoch aktueller gegenwärtiger Bedeutung sind. Sein Wirken kann hier nur in kurzen Ansätzen gewürdigt werden und erfordert eine grundlegende zukünftige Aufarbeitung, um dessen Tragweite sichtbar werden zu lassen.

Although Paul is not very forthcoming with biographical details, his letter to the Romans does offer quite significant information about his self-perception, his role in the Christ movement, his understanding of his activities, the rationale and itinerary of his travels, and the network of people he knows in Rome. This information is found principally in the “framework” of the letter, that is, material at the beginning and toward the end, with the body consisting in its main content. However, clues about Paul himself are also interspersed throughout the body of the letter. In what follows, I will consider each of these clues within a series of thematic sections that arise from the biographical evidence in Romans.

The process of secularization can be defined as a shift in the focus of European thought from the transcendent God, the otherworldly, and the suprahuman, towards immanence, that is, towards the world and the human condition in the world. Secularization represents a transition from theism to humanism. Given this definition, it is often concluded that secularization has led to the exclusion of God from thought and the removal of religion from society. Nevertheless, post-secular thought offers a more nuanced and sophisticated perspective. As postulated by numerous theorists, secularization was not a departure from theism and religion in general, but rather a departure from a specific conception of God and a particular mode of religiosity that had been dominant for an extended period. Most contributions to this volume identify the moments of secularization and humanism, not as the elimination of God but on the contrary as an opportunity that various thinkers recognized to liberate the divine from the constraints of hegemonic European theology and religiosity. This perspective suggests that secularization did not erase God but rather created an opportunity for the humanization of religion through ethical, social, or political activation. The papers in this volume take different approaches and offer different responses to the question of how the divine and the transcendent reappear in the discourse of humanism.