A vivid introduction to St Paul's thinking
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In this short book E. P. Sanders provides a lucid account of St Paul’s theology. Paul’s life was a dramatic one: having been a Pharisee who had persecuted Christians he underwent a dramatic conversion in which he felt himself called to be Christ’s apostle to the Gentiles. This brought him into conflict with those Jewish Christians who believed that Jesus’s message was for the Jews only. Sanders explores Paul’s thought as it is developed in the letters he wrote (the New Testament books of Romans, Corinthians, Galatians etc). Paul emerges as a passionate and inspired theologian, above all a practical theologian. He was not concerned with theology as a dry academic discipline but with solving the problems of the young churches which he had helped to set up. (Should Christians be circumcised? Did salvation from Christ exempt Christians from the law? Is speaking in tongues more important than charity?) The tensions, and occasional contradictions, that Sanders highlights in Paul’s thinking reveal a depth and creativity that later Christian thinkers who have strived harder for consistency often lack. This is an excellent introduction to one of the most remarkable and influential figures in the history of Christianity.
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