Authorship is a frequent source of discussion and debate when looking at these epistles. How important is authorship to your engagement with these texts? Does certainty about who wrote them impact their meaning for you?
How do you feel about pseudoepigraphic writing? Does the context make a difference (e.g. philosophy vs. fiction vs. scripture)?
Applying the Text:
What is your familiarity with these eleven epistles? In what context have you come across them?
The topics and themes of these epistles are varied, and may even contradict each other at times. What is our role as readers of these texts when it comes to applying these teachings? What are the ways we can either hold competing ideas from these texts in tension, or find ways to reconcile them?