Paul

February 1, 2018

To some extent, Wright (New Testament and early Christianity, Univ. of St. Andrews; Paul and the Faithfulness of God) is not providing a biography of the apostle Paul--there just isn't enough historical data for that. However, with the sources available, Wright is after the central concerns that impelled his subject, in particular the idea of zeal and faith as reckoned as righteousness. In many ways, this is a distillation of Wright's most recent works. His view of Paul is a mix of conservative biblical scholarship--e.g., he takes the "we" passages in the Book of Acts to be Luke's firsthand report and argues that most, if not all the so-called disputed letters of Paul are authentic--and a radical reworking of biblical theology, in which his own Exile theory is central. Wright offers a sense of the cultural, political, intellectual, and spiritual forces of that time that acted in the development of Paul's thought. VERDICT Walking a fine line between presenting a fresh biblical perspective in Pauline theology and reworking the Pauline corpus according to his own biblical theology, Wright's work, although intended for the informed layperson, will spark much debate among scholars and students.--James Wetherbee, Wingate Univ. Libs., NC

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Starred review from December 1, 2017
Wright (New Testament and Early Christianity/University of St. Andrews; The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus's Crucifixion, 2016, etc.) draws from a lifetime of study on the figure of Paul to construct this useful biography of the early Christian missionary.Though there is no shortage of extant material about Paul, who helped establish Christianity as a growing religion in the Mediterranean basin, the author is nevertheless able to provide a much-needed fresh voice to the body of Pauline studies. Blending solid scholarship and analysis with a respect for and, indeed, belief in the text, Wright provides a solid introduction to Paul written not for the skeptic but for the believer. He is a fluid writer whose work is accessible and engrossing. Throughout, Wright attempts to discover "what made Paul tick." What he discovers is a man driven from his youth by zeal and inspired by a passion for his scriptural antecedents. Once confronted with the new reality of Jesus Christ, revealed to him in a vision on the road to Damascus, Paul was forced to reassess his belief system and, ultimately, his life's course. Instead of getting bogged down in inconsistencies with Paul's timeline, as do many scholars, Wright takes these elements in stride and looks to the realities of what Paul must have been dealing with, wherever and with whomever being of secondary importance. Paul realized that Jesus represented not a new religion but a fulfillment of his Jewish beliefs; with that understanding firmly in his mind, he set out to share it with the world. Along the way, he suffered greatly, in ways that Wright brilliantly exposes by drawing forth from the text the tapestry of anxieties, broken relationships, beatings, imprisonments, and other crises that dogged his life and ministry.A very human Paul, brought to life by an experienced teacher and pastor--an excellent introduction for general readers.

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Starred review from November 15, 2017
Continuing on the course he began in 2016's The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus's Crucifixion, Wright, an Anglican bishop, presents what might be called a speculative biography of the apostle Paul. Of course, as a prolific writer on Christianity, he has plenty of facts at his disposal, which he uses ably. But here he is doing something a bit different, actually getting inside the head of the man most responsible for spreading Jesus' words across the Roman world. This requires careful reading both of Paul's writings and of biblical sources like Acts, but when it comes to events such as Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus (which gets a full chapter's treatment), there is room to make calculated guesses. Wright brings alive not only Paul but also the communities where he formed churches and the religious ideas swirling around them, never forgetting to remind readers of the Jewish milieu from which both Jesus and Paul sprang. The final chapter offers answers to big questions, sometimes unsatisfactorily (e.g., Why didn't Jesus return or the earth pass away?), but his arguments are always spirited. This highly readable volume gives those interested in biblical history something to argue about and plenty to ponder.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)