Colossians

Pros Kolossaeis

Anonymous or Paul (authorship is genuinely disputed; a plurality of critical scholars regard it as deutero-Pauline, while a substantial minority defend Pauline authorship) · c. AD 55-90 · Rome (Italy) · letters

Colossians confronts a local "philosophy" combining ascetic practice and veneration of angelic or elemental powers by arguing Christ alone holds cosmic supremacy, so no supplementary spiritual regimen is needed, a christology more exalted than the undisputed Pauline letters that keeps its authorship contested. Rome is the traditional, disputed site of composition (Ephesus is also proposed), while the letter's own destination was Colossae in Asia Minor.