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Editorial Reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars Revisiting Paul with N.T. Wright
The Church understands the Bible to be God’s words in human words. N.T. Wright, a leading scripture scholar and Anglican bishop, arguably uses this principle as the interpretive key to approach Paul in his masterful new book, Paul: A Biography.The book is composed of an introduction and fifteen chapters and presents Paul in a way accessible to non-scholars. Wright aims to invite a more general readership to seriously consider Paul anew, and so to this end he does not directly engage other Pauline scholarship. Additionally, Wright provides a friendly map at the beginning of each chapter, which greatly aids in following both Paul’s incessant movement as well as the narrative flow of Wright’s book.Wright sets out two objectives for his book: First, he wants to get inside the mind of Paul, that is, to understand what Paul understood himself to be doing as he preached, traveled, wrote, and suffered for the Gospel. Second, and in light of Paul’s own understanding, Wright wants to revisit what happened on the way to Damascus.Wright has a deep love for scripture and a deep love for history, and he reaches for both as he seeks to meet the two objectives of his book. What emerges is a careful unfolding of Paul’s own clearsighted apprehension (in light of the Risen Lord who calls him) of scripture as one Messianic story of God’s people, whose hope is finally fulfilled through the unexpected and unimagined faithfulness of a crucified Messiah, revealed to be the very Son of God, and before whom Temple and Torah are reckoned mere signposts.If the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah (Christos) even to the cross is the answer to the hope of Israel, Wright also argues that Paul knows Jesus as the one in whose name the Gentiles also find hope. The faithfulness of the crucified Messiah, paradoxically, is revealed to be the one in whom all the promises of God find their ‘yes’ (2 Cor 1:19). So, as Wright notes, Paul, just because of his faith in the crucified Messiah, “can travel the world of Rome and think the thoughts of Greece without fear or shame” (201). This is because Paul knows that the Messiah and his cross are not one more truth among many small truths; rather, the cross is the Wisdom of God, ordering and purifying even the truths of pagan philosophy.Still, the victory won by the Messiah cannot be understood apart from the story of Israel, and nowhere does Wright make this case more convincingly than in presenting Paul’s reason for writing the Letter to the Romans. Wright argues here, as he does also at greater length in his commentary on Romans in The New Interpreter’s Bible series, that Romans shows us Paul writing to an almost exclusively Gentile church, but one that is in danger of forgetting, or even of consciously rejecting, the Jewish people and therefore also the Jewish origins of their own faith. For Paul, this is an issue of surpassing theological concern, as well of great personal anguish, as we see so clearly in the letter. And so we have Romans, Paul’s masterpiece, in which he writes that the power of the Gospel is for “Jew first and then the Greek” (Rom 1:16), and that it is because of the Lord Jesus that the wild shoot of the Gentiles has been grafted onto the rich roots of the faith of Israel, and in God’s own time this shoot will aid in his Jewish people coming to faith in Jesus.Wright is an engaging storyteller, and very effectively immerses us in the complex world of the 1st century. Moreover, he thinks Paul has something to say that the contemporary world ought to hear. We see Paul in action in a way that brings a renewed intimacy to the familiar figure of Acts of the Apostles. We see Paul’s boldness and tireless missionary zeal, especially in Wright’s gripping account of Paul’s evangelical courage at the Areopagus—surely an important word to those in the contemporary Christian landscape who advocate retreat in the face of a society hostile to the message of the Gospel. And we see what drove it all, namely, Paul’s great charity, borne from the love that he himself experienced personally from Jesus. “Yet I live, no longer I, but the Messiah lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me” (Gal 2:20) occurs like a refrain throughout Wright’s book. By drawing on theology and history—God’s words in human fashion—Wright better positions us to see the power, and also the stumbling block, of Paul heralding the Messiah, crucified and risen.
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book on Paul, his mission and motives.
Excellent book. Well written and researched. Adds a lot to my understanding not only of Paul, but all of Scripture. He helps increase the reader's understanding of the world into which Jesus came, shedding light on the political, cultural and religious environments of the time. Helps explain so much why so many had such strong reactions to the Paul and his message of the Messiah.
4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Read, Helpful History, Confused about Justifying Faith
Really enjoyed this book. Wright in an able and insightful historian. He tells an excellent story.Negatives include Wright’s view of justifying faith as Fide qua and Fide Quae, with the Fide quae including assent and beyond assent covenant loyalty or obedience. This view of faith isn’t so problematic in itself. The problem finds its way in Wright’s explanation of these three meanings of faith with regard to justification. Wright is so determined to set of a straw man of Reformation justification and then knock down the straw man he created that he conflates justifying and sanctifying faith together.One can see this error in his approach to Paul as a loyal Jew from the beginning only ignorant of Jesus as Messiah. He sees Paul more as misguided than the chief of sinners or wretched man that I am, etc. allowing Wright to focus on faith as loyalty.Additionally, Wright warns others about psychologizing, especially historical psychology even while engaging in quite a bit of it himself.Despite this systemic confusion regarding faith and justification, I greatly enjoyed Wright’s work and learned a lot from him.
5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful User Friendly Biography of a Fascinating Figure
Last February, a friend shared on Facebook that he had downloaded N.T. Wright’s “Paul: A Biography” for Lenten reading. St. Paul is not someone I usually associate with Lent. True, excellent passages about sin, grace, and repentance can be found in St. Paul’s letters and give us food for thought during the Lenten season, and his beginning a new life and starting over time and time again, can make him a helpful role model for our Lenten journeys, but I usually associate Paul with after Easter events. Well, I took his advice and downloaded the book too, and started reading it, and whether you associate St. Paul with Lent, Easter, or Ordinary Time, this book is thought provoking. It is informative for the reader who wants to know more about St. Paul and has wonderful thoughts that can help us as we grow as followers of Christ.There are many books about St. Paul, including other titles by Wright himself, but most of the books available deal with the complexities of Paul and less on the person. Oftentimes biographies of Paul tend to look at him from a psychological point of view, which given how he is such a larger than life personality can be fascinating, but very few books look at the person of St. Paul. This is what Wright does in this work and it is clear he not only is fascinated by studying the accounts of St. Paul in Acts of the Apostles and the letters, but Wright is fascinated by Paul and loves the man as he demonstrates by admiring his strengths and acknowledging his quirks and faults. As he writes about the events in Paul’s life, he also looks at the letters he was writing at the time. He also gives a good amount of time to understanding Paul’s Judaism and the Judaism of the time, both in Jerusalem and for those living in other parts of The Roman Empire which is key to understanding St. Paul. He likewise gives a vivid portrait of the Roman Empire at the time which is essential since most of St. Paul’s travels were to cities and colonies of the Empire. What emerges is a spiritual journey of one of the greatest figures of our faith and we gain an appreciation of not only his dedication to God but his contributions to the Early Church. This is not a sit down a read in one sitting kind of book, and while most chapters are lengthy, many are broken down into smaller portions. I read it in smaller portions which made it easier to follow what was happening and gave me time for reflection.This would be an excellent choice for a church related book club or would be a fascinating way to spice up a Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles or the Pauline Epistles. What I do think is important to keep in mind, however, is that while Bishop Wright is a scholar and he can support his positions in the book which differ from other Pauline scholars, this book is not scholarly in nature. Still, it is a great book that enlightens us and challenges us as we look at this great figure from the New Testament and is sure to not only give the reader new outlook on St. Paul, but a better appreciation of what it means to follow Jesus Christ.
Better than expected!
This book gives a different perspective and insight into the life of Paul! Well worth the read if you are interested in early Christianity!
Powerful and Elegant
4.5/5A very interesting and mature work presenting the life and thought of the most important Christian thinker in ancient history: the Apostle Paul. As a result of a whole research life on the figure, Tom Wright deals with confidence and—most of the time—with clarity about Paul in his historical context. Although aware of both Jewish and Roman backgrounds, Wright emphasizes—way more, one should say—the former as the matrix through which Paul is trying to read and explain the Christian faith. The second chapter, on the significance of "zeal" for the young Saul was very helpful for me. The question of change of style in some of Paul's letters (esp. from 1 to 2 Corinthians) as a result of experiences of deep suffering in Ephesus is also quite thought-provoking.However, I still bring some important questions concerning the whole work. The main ones are:1) It seems like Wright speculates too much about Paul's prayer life. For instance, according to Wright, the significance of Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus is directly related to the Jewish practice of prayerful meditation in key passages, especially Ezekiel 1. Although a fascinating suggestion, it has very little biblical-historical basis. No direct scriptural echo is pointed. But for Wright, relating Ezekiel 1 to the Damascus experience explains why Paul suddenly understood why the One God Creator was present in Jesus Christ. Interesting, but too thin.2) Wright is not clear concerning the Pauline authorship of the Pastoral letters. He spends several pages for Galatians and Romans, but Titus and 1-2 Timothy are briefly overviewed in 3 paragraphs, with a question mark on the chronology. Not that this position is exclusive to Wright—several Pauline scholars affirm that these letters were not penned by Paul—but he gives little clue to the questions. Maybe this is not the book for that, but a straightforward position, either pro or against Pauline authorship, could have been taken.3) Wright does not get to more complicated issues concerning Paul in his historical context. A good example is the longe-debated affirmations of Paul about women in church. Wright explores the democratic statement of Galatians 3:28, and how this was attractive for women in the Roman World (check the chapter "The Challenge of Paul"), but how can we set passages such as 1 Corinthians 14 or 2 Timothy 2 in Paul's life and historical backdrop? Again, we're dealing with a biography, not a theological introduction to Paul, but it would be at least interesting to consider these passages as part of Paul's influence, in order to answer one of the book's big question "Why was Paul's ministry successful" in spite of such limitations to the female gender?All in all, this is a consistent book, and some paragraphs can make you rediscover the power of Paul's legacy (See the closing of the book on pp. 430-2). Even the way Wright explores Paul's insistence on the unity of Jews and Gentiles in Romans and in the last chapter is highly elegant, way far from dead academic halls we can find elsewhere. Here's an author in love with Paul, and who might make you have a "road to Damascus experience" with the apostle's life.
Paul the human
This is a superb new book which comes from the man generally acknowledged to be the leading living New Testament scholar, Tom Wright. It’s in many ways a culmination of his vast life's work in theology, much of which looks at Paul’s writings. Devotees of Wright will recognise many of his previous themes. Now however he has recast his great theological scholarship on the Pauline epistles into a biographical form. It is more accessible and somewhat less lengthy than the more specialist works and designed for the general reader, a category I certainly include myself in, rather than the specialist theologian. It is still pretty long (500 pages plus) and in places it is a little repetitive: the editing of a second edition could be enhanced.Where Wright succeeds brilliantly is a picture of Paul as a human being. We can tend to see him as primarily a theologian, even an ivory tower dweller, but the book brings out his much broader background - a businessman, a student, a traveller, a Roman citizen, a teacher. A man of energy, drive and great courage, who could at times argues Wright, also be bossy, experience depression and need affirmation from his congregations. Perhaps most importantly he places Paul at the intersection of Greek, Roman and Jewish life which enables us to see Paul much more as his contemporaries would have seen him. It is a world which is profoundly different to ours for truly “the past is a different country they do things differently there” and Wright is excellent at bringing that out. For example “ today religion...designates a detached area of life, a kind of private hobby for those who like that kind of thing, separated by definition from politics and public life, from science and technology. In Paul’s day “religion” meant almost exactly the opposite”.Wright, as you would expect from someone of his depth of scholarship is brilliant at looking at many aspects of Paul’s life and times that we might overlook. He points out for example that in Athens Paul was not in a university debating chamber but something much nearer to a courtroom and that he was dangerously close to the same charge that had led to the death of Socrates. Want to know how Paul probably proved he was a Roman citizen? Or what being a tent maker was really like as a job? Did you know that the debate about who was a Jew and who not, was key in part because Jews enjoyed an exemption from the general demand to worship Caesar and as result were looked on as virtually atheists? He is also very insightful about Paul the embarrassed fund raiser or Paul the opinionated shipping expert - this book humanizes Paul, brings him down from some theological Mount Olympus.Of the three great systems of thought listed above it is Paul the Jew that comes out most strongly. Wright makes a whole series of suggestions as to OT passages that inspired Paul - Ezekiel’s vision of the heavenly throne-chariot on the road to Damascus, for exampole. By stressing the Jewishness of Paul he underlines the errors of the c19th German liberals who sought to do the exact opposite - to lever Paul out of his Jewish background. This Damascus road experience was hardly a religious conversion in the modern sense, argues Wright - “not for one second did Paul cease to believe in the one God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob...what drove him forward was the belief that Israel’s God has done what he always said he would....that Temple and Torah themselves were not the ultimate realities but instead glorious signposts pointing forward...to Jesus”. And that additionally all humans and not just Jews could be set free to worship the one God.And what was Paul pointing to about Jesus? Wright is surely right when he says that Paul wasn’t telling people how to live or how to get to heaven but that the crucified Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God. On the issue of what faith in the Messiah means - a burning one if you follow the ‘new perspective on Paul ‘ debate, if you’ve never heard of it don’t worry - Wright seems to hedge his bets. He asks himself the question “ is it justification by loyalty?” and seems as far as I can tell to answer “on balance, no”. He says the Greek word ‘pistis’ which we translate into English as ‘faith’ “also has overtones of faithfulness...and loyalty....that as well as belief there is the commitment that accompanies genuine belief that Jesus is the worlds sovereign. " This sounds to me a sensible place to rest but does leave a number of loose threads which minds of greater theological heft than mine will no doubt seek to untangle further.My only caveat is that Tom Wright in places seems to love to set up and then knock down evangelical straw men. Just to take a few examples - is Western Christianity really like Plutarch being about“leaving the wicked realm of space and time and matter to find a way to heaven from which pure souls have been temporarily exiled?” Are there really Christians who think being a Christian is 100% individualistic and zero about being part of a community? Do some Christians really think “the gospel is all about inner feelings and not at all about outward actions?” And for the early Christians was what happened to people after death “unimportant, a mere interim”?So while there are occasional axes being ground this should not detract from what is a brilliant book. Like all Wright’s writing one might not agree with everything but he certainly makes you think and strongly defends many orthodox positions, not least that the epistles were all written by the man himself. In fact he skillfully traces how he thinks Paul’s circumstances and chronology - which he adapts somewhat to include an Ephesian imprisonment - shaped each of the books. The only ones he struggles to fit into his scheme are the Pastorals.Wright deliberately avoids any application as to what Paul might have made of the church today -hopefully this might be his next book! This books succeeds because it humanizes Paul, explains his contract, even his inner thought patterns. The result is that we again realize that Paul, like all the Bible writers, was a real person pointing us to a real God.
the theology of NT Wright in prose
I highly recommend this book. Compared to Wright's other theology books this is much more accessible. He follows Paul's journey from what we know from his letters and Acts and cautiously speculates about what we don't know, filling in from other historical sources. The man Paul comes alive in these pages, which in turn makes his letters so much more approachable. Put in their contexts, much of what seems cryptic to the lay person in Paul's letters suddenly starts to come together.
Superb
Amazing book
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Order today to get by 7-14 business days
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Imported From: United States
At BOLO, we work hard to ensure the products you receive are new, genuine, and sourced from reputable suppliers.
BOLO is not an authorized or official retailer for most brands, nor are we affiliated with manufacturers unless specifically stated on a product page. Instead, we source verified sellers, authorized distributors or directly from the manufacturer.
Each product undergoes thorough inspection and verification at our consolidation and fulfilment centers to ensure it meets our strict authenticity and quality standards before being shipped and delivered to you.
If you ever have concerns regarding the authenticity of a product purchased from us, please contact Bolo Support. We will review your inquiry promptly and, if necessary, provide documentation verifying authenticity or offer a suitable resolution.
Your trust is our top priority, and we are committed to maintaining transparency and integrity in every transaction.
All product information, images, descriptions, and reviews originate from the manufacturer or from trusted sellers overseas. BOLO is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or an authorized retailer for most brands listed on our website unless stated otherwise.
While we strive to display accurate information, variations in packaging, labeling, instructions, or formulation may occasionally occur due to regional differences or supplier updates. For detailed or manufacturer-specific information, please contact the brand directly or reach out to BOLO Support for assistance.
Unless otherwise stated, all prices displayed on the product page include applicable taxes and import duties.
BOLO operates in accordance with the laws and regulations of United Arab Emirates. Any items found to be restricted or prohibited for sale within the UAE will be cancelled prior to shipment. We take proactive measures to ensure that only products permitted for sale in United Arab Emirates are listed on our website.
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All orders are processed manually, and we make every effort to process them promptly once confirmed. Products cancelled due to the above reasons will be permanently removed from listings across the website.
Description:
Editorial Reviews
Reviews:
5.0 out of 5 stars Revisiting Paul with N.T. Wright
The Church understands the Bible to be God’s words in human words. N.T. Wright, a leading scripture scholar and Anglican bishop, arguably uses this principle as the interpretive key to approach Paul in his masterful new book, Paul: A Biography.The book is composed of an introduction and fifteen chapters and presents Paul in a way accessible to non-scholars. Wright aims to invite a more general readership to seriously consider Paul anew, and so to this end he does not directly engage other Pauline scholarship. Additionally, Wright provides a friendly map at the beginning of each chapter, which greatly aids in following both Paul’s incessant movement as well as the narrative flow of Wright’s book.Wright sets out two objectives for his book: First, he wants to get inside the mind of Paul, that is, to understand what Paul understood himself to be doing as he preached, traveled, wrote, and suffered for the Gospel. Second, and in light of Paul’s own understanding, Wright wants to revisit what happened on the way to Damascus.Wright has a deep love for scripture and a deep love for history, and he reaches for both as he seeks to meet the two objectives of his book. What emerges is a careful unfolding of Paul’s own clearsighted apprehension (in light of the Risen Lord who calls him) of scripture as one Messianic story of God’s people, whose hope is finally fulfilled through the unexpected and unimagined faithfulness of a crucified Messiah, revealed to be the very Son of God, and before whom Temple and Torah are reckoned mere signposts.If the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah (Christos) even to the cross is the answer to the hope of Israel, Wright also argues that Paul knows Jesus as the one in whose name the Gentiles also find hope. The faithfulness of the crucified Messiah, paradoxically, is revealed to be the one in whom all the promises of God find their ‘yes’ (2 Cor 1:19). So, as Wright notes, Paul, just because of his faith in the crucified Messiah, “can travel the world of Rome and think the thoughts of Greece without fear or shame” (201). This is because Paul knows that the Messiah and his cross are not one more truth among many small truths; rather, the cross is the Wisdom of God, ordering and purifying even the truths of pagan philosophy.Still, the victory won by the Messiah cannot be understood apart from the story of Israel, and nowhere does Wright make this case more convincingly than in presenting Paul’s reason for writing the Letter to the Romans. Wright argues here, as he does also at greater length in his commentary on Romans in The New Interpreter’s Bible series, that Romans shows us Paul writing to an almost exclusively Gentile church, but one that is in danger of forgetting, or even of consciously rejecting, the Jewish people and therefore also the Jewish origins of their own faith. For Paul, this is an issue of surpassing theological concern, as well of great personal anguish, as we see so clearly in the letter. And so we have Romans, Paul’s masterpiece, in which he writes that the power of the Gospel is for “Jew first and then the Greek” (Rom 1:16), and that it is because of the Lord Jesus that the wild shoot of the Gentiles has been grafted onto the rich roots of the faith of Israel, and in God’s own time this shoot will aid in his Jewish people coming to faith in Jesus.Wright is an engaging storyteller, and very effectively immerses us in the complex world of the 1st century. Moreover, he thinks Paul has something to say that the contemporary world ought to hear. We see Paul in action in a way that brings a renewed intimacy to the familiar figure of Acts of the Apostles. We see Paul’s boldness and tireless missionary zeal, especially in Wright’s gripping account of Paul’s evangelical courage at the Areopagus—surely an important word to those in the contemporary Christian landscape who advocate retreat in the face of a society hostile to the message of the Gospel. And we see what drove it all, namely, Paul’s great charity, borne from the love that he himself experienced personally from Jesus. “Yet I live, no longer I, but the Messiah lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me” (Gal 2:20) occurs like a refrain throughout Wright’s book. By drawing on theology and history—God’s words in human fashion—Wright better positions us to see the power, and also the stumbling block, of Paul heralding the Messiah, crucified and risen.
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book on Paul, his mission and motives.
Excellent book. Well written and researched. Adds a lot to my understanding not only of Paul, but all of Scripture. He helps increase the reader's understanding of the world into which Jesus came, shedding light on the political, cultural and religious environments of the time. Helps explain so much why so many had such strong reactions to the Paul and his message of the Messiah.
4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Read, Helpful History, Confused about Justifying Faith
Really enjoyed this book. Wright in an able and insightful historian. He tells an excellent story.Negatives include Wright’s view of justifying faith as Fide qua and Fide Quae, with the Fide quae including assent and beyond assent covenant loyalty or obedience. This view of faith isn’t so problematic in itself. The problem finds its way in Wright’s explanation of these three meanings of faith with regard to justification. Wright is so determined to set of a straw man of Reformation justification and then knock down the straw man he created that he conflates justifying and sanctifying faith together.One can see this error in his approach to Paul as a loyal Jew from the beginning only ignorant of Jesus as Messiah. He sees Paul more as misguided than the chief of sinners or wretched man that I am, etc. allowing Wright to focus on faith as loyalty.Additionally, Wright warns others about psychologizing, especially historical psychology even while engaging in quite a bit of it himself.Despite this systemic confusion regarding faith and justification, I greatly enjoyed Wright’s work and learned a lot from him.
5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful User Friendly Biography of a Fascinating Figure
Last February, a friend shared on Facebook that he had downloaded N.T. Wright’s “Paul: A Biography” for Lenten reading. St. Paul is not someone I usually associate with Lent. True, excellent passages about sin, grace, and repentance can be found in St. Paul’s letters and give us food for thought during the Lenten season, and his beginning a new life and starting over time and time again, can make him a helpful role model for our Lenten journeys, but I usually associate Paul with after Easter events. Well, I took his advice and downloaded the book too, and started reading it, and whether you associate St. Paul with Lent, Easter, or Ordinary Time, this book is thought provoking. It is informative for the reader who wants to know more about St. Paul and has wonderful thoughts that can help us as we grow as followers of Christ.There are many books about St. Paul, including other titles by Wright himself, but most of the books available deal with the complexities of Paul and less on the person. Oftentimes biographies of Paul tend to look at him from a psychological point of view, which given how he is such a larger than life personality can be fascinating, but very few books look at the person of St. Paul. This is what Wright does in this work and it is clear he not only is fascinated by studying the accounts of St. Paul in Acts of the Apostles and the letters, but Wright is fascinated by Paul and loves the man as he demonstrates by admiring his strengths and acknowledging his quirks and faults. As he writes about the events in Paul’s life, he also looks at the letters he was writing at the time. He also gives a good amount of time to understanding Paul’s Judaism and the Judaism of the time, both in Jerusalem and for those living in other parts of The Roman Empire which is key to understanding St. Paul. He likewise gives a vivid portrait of the Roman Empire at the time which is essential since most of St. Paul’s travels were to cities and colonies of the Empire. What emerges is a spiritual journey of one of the greatest figures of our faith and we gain an appreciation of not only his dedication to God but his contributions to the Early Church. This is not a sit down a read in one sitting kind of book, and while most chapters are lengthy, many are broken down into smaller portions. I read it in smaller portions which made it easier to follow what was happening and gave me time for reflection.This would be an excellent choice for a church related book club or would be a fascinating way to spice up a Bible Study on Acts of the Apostles or the Pauline Epistles. What I do think is important to keep in mind, however, is that while Bishop Wright is a scholar and he can support his positions in the book which differ from other Pauline scholars, this book is not scholarly in nature. Still, it is a great book that enlightens us and challenges us as we look at this great figure from the New Testament and is sure to not only give the reader new outlook on St. Paul, but a better appreciation of what it means to follow Jesus Christ.
Better than expected!
This book gives a different perspective and insight into the life of Paul! Well worth the read if you are interested in early Christianity!
Powerful and Elegant
4.5/5A very interesting and mature work presenting the life and thought of the most important Christian thinker in ancient history: the Apostle Paul. As a result of a whole research life on the figure, Tom Wright deals with confidence and—most of the time—with clarity about Paul in his historical context. Although aware of both Jewish and Roman backgrounds, Wright emphasizes—way more, one should say—the former as the matrix through which Paul is trying to read and explain the Christian faith. The second chapter, on the significance of "zeal" for the young Saul was very helpful for me. The question of change of style in some of Paul's letters (esp. from 1 to 2 Corinthians) as a result of experiences of deep suffering in Ephesus is also quite thought-provoking.However, I still bring some important questions concerning the whole work. The main ones are:1) It seems like Wright speculates too much about Paul's prayer life. For instance, according to Wright, the significance of Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus is directly related to the Jewish practice of prayerful meditation in key passages, especially Ezekiel 1. Although a fascinating suggestion, it has very little biblical-historical basis. No direct scriptural echo is pointed. But for Wright, relating Ezekiel 1 to the Damascus experience explains why Paul suddenly understood why the One God Creator was present in Jesus Christ. Interesting, but too thin.2) Wright is not clear concerning the Pauline authorship of the Pastoral letters. He spends several pages for Galatians and Romans, but Titus and 1-2 Timothy are briefly overviewed in 3 paragraphs, with a question mark on the chronology. Not that this position is exclusive to Wright—several Pauline scholars affirm that these letters were not penned by Paul—but he gives little clue to the questions. Maybe this is not the book for that, but a straightforward position, either pro or against Pauline authorship, could have been taken.3) Wright does not get to more complicated issues concerning Paul in his historical context. A good example is the longe-debated affirmations of Paul about women in church. Wright explores the democratic statement of Galatians 3:28, and how this was attractive for women in the Roman World (check the chapter "The Challenge of Paul"), but how can we set passages such as 1 Corinthians 14 or 2 Timothy 2 in Paul's life and historical backdrop? Again, we're dealing with a biography, not a theological introduction to Paul, but it would be at least interesting to consider these passages as part of Paul's influence, in order to answer one of the book's big question "Why was Paul's ministry successful" in spite of such limitations to the female gender?All in all, this is a consistent book, and some paragraphs can make you rediscover the power of Paul's legacy (See the closing of the book on pp. 430-2). Even the way Wright explores Paul's insistence on the unity of Jews and Gentiles in Romans and in the last chapter is highly elegant, way far from dead academic halls we can find elsewhere. Here's an author in love with Paul, and who might make you have a "road to Damascus experience" with the apostle's life.
Paul the human
This is a superb new book which comes from the man generally acknowledged to be the leading living New Testament scholar, Tom Wright. It’s in many ways a culmination of his vast life's work in theology, much of which looks at Paul’s writings. Devotees of Wright will recognise many of his previous themes. Now however he has recast his great theological scholarship on the Pauline epistles into a biographical form. It is more accessible and somewhat less lengthy than the more specialist works and designed for the general reader, a category I certainly include myself in, rather than the specialist theologian. It is still pretty long (500 pages plus) and in places it is a little repetitive: the editing of a second edition could be enhanced.Where Wright succeeds brilliantly is a picture of Paul as a human being. We can tend to see him as primarily a theologian, even an ivory tower dweller, but the book brings out his much broader background - a businessman, a student, a traveller, a Roman citizen, a teacher. A man of energy, drive and great courage, who could at times argues Wright, also be bossy, experience depression and need affirmation from his congregations. Perhaps most importantly he places Paul at the intersection of Greek, Roman and Jewish life which enables us to see Paul much more as his contemporaries would have seen him. It is a world which is profoundly different to ours for truly “the past is a different country they do things differently there” and Wright is excellent at bringing that out. For example “ today religion...designates a detached area of life, a kind of private hobby for those who like that kind of thing, separated by definition from politics and public life, from science and technology. In Paul’s day “religion” meant almost exactly the opposite”.Wright, as you would expect from someone of his depth of scholarship is brilliant at looking at many aspects of Paul’s life and times that we might overlook. He points out for example that in Athens Paul was not in a university debating chamber but something much nearer to a courtroom and that he was dangerously close to the same charge that had led to the death of Socrates. Want to know how Paul probably proved he was a Roman citizen? Or what being a tent maker was really like as a job? Did you know that the debate about who was a Jew and who not, was key in part because Jews enjoyed an exemption from the general demand to worship Caesar and as result were looked on as virtually atheists? He is also very insightful about Paul the embarrassed fund raiser or Paul the opinionated shipping expert - this book humanizes Paul, brings him down from some theological Mount Olympus.Of the three great systems of thought listed above it is Paul the Jew that comes out most strongly. Wright makes a whole series of suggestions as to OT passages that inspired Paul - Ezekiel’s vision of the heavenly throne-chariot on the road to Damascus, for exampole. By stressing the Jewishness of Paul he underlines the errors of the c19th German liberals who sought to do the exact opposite - to lever Paul out of his Jewish background. This Damascus road experience was hardly a religious conversion in the modern sense, argues Wright - “not for one second did Paul cease to believe in the one God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob...what drove him forward was the belief that Israel’s God has done what he always said he would....that Temple and Torah themselves were not the ultimate realities but instead glorious signposts pointing forward...to Jesus”. And that additionally all humans and not just Jews could be set free to worship the one God.And what was Paul pointing to about Jesus? Wright is surely right when he says that Paul wasn’t telling people how to live or how to get to heaven but that the crucified Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God. On the issue of what faith in the Messiah means - a burning one if you follow the ‘new perspective on Paul ‘ debate, if you’ve never heard of it don’t worry - Wright seems to hedge his bets. He asks himself the question “ is it justification by loyalty?” and seems as far as I can tell to answer “on balance, no”. He says the Greek word ‘pistis’ which we translate into English as ‘faith’ “also has overtones of faithfulness...and loyalty....that as well as belief there is the commitment that accompanies genuine belief that Jesus is the worlds sovereign. " This sounds to me a sensible place to rest but does leave a number of loose threads which minds of greater theological heft than mine will no doubt seek to untangle further.My only caveat is that Tom Wright in places seems to love to set up and then knock down evangelical straw men. Just to take a few examples - is Western Christianity really like Plutarch being about“leaving the wicked realm of space and time and matter to find a way to heaven from which pure souls have been temporarily exiled?” Are there really Christians who think being a Christian is 100% individualistic and zero about being part of a community? Do some Christians really think “the gospel is all about inner feelings and not at all about outward actions?” And for the early Christians was what happened to people after death “unimportant, a mere interim”?So while there are occasional axes being ground this should not detract from what is a brilliant book. Like all Wright’s writing one might not agree with everything but he certainly makes you think and strongly defends many orthodox positions, not least that the epistles were all written by the man himself. In fact he skillfully traces how he thinks Paul’s circumstances and chronology - which he adapts somewhat to include an Ephesian imprisonment - shaped each of the books. The only ones he struggles to fit into his scheme are the Pastorals.Wright deliberately avoids any application as to what Paul might have made of the church today -hopefully this might be his next book! This books succeeds because it humanizes Paul, explains his contract, even his inner thought patterns. The result is that we again realize that Paul, like all the Bible writers, was a real person pointing us to a real God.
the theology of NT Wright in prose
I highly recommend this book. Compared to Wright's other theology books this is much more accessible. He follows Paul's journey from what we know from his letters and Acts and cautiously speculates about what we don't know, filling in from other historical sources. The man Paul comes alive in these pages, which in turn makes his letters so much more approachable. Put in their contexts, much of what seems cryptic to the lay person in Paul's letters suddenly starts to come together.
Superb
Amazing book
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