Apostle of the Crucified Lord: A Theological Introduction to Paul and His Letters

As a first year Seminary student, I found this book to be very well organized and informative for understanding the cultural context for Paul and other first-century Christians.

Good

Very good book on Paul’s life and ministry!

This book I received today was suppose to be new but it came with cuts on my book. Not happy

good

Engaging style. Updated and relevant.

It is good and am enjoying it.

PAULEND OF A PROJECTPaul, is one of the pillars of Christianity. I mean major.And today, he is so out of fashion because he said a couple of really awful things about homosexuality and some very not good things about women. (although the troublesome texts in relation to women may not be actually by Paul. And one particular passage may be some thing that someone later down the line just threw in).The big problem with Paul, in my eyes, is that people have made him into this infallible source of Christian doctrine and theology. And have quoted all sorts of lines out of context to clobber people. The church has done that.For me, I have a problem with the church. I don’t have a problem with Paul.If he didn’t have a receding hairline, I may have even dated him.I was actually captivated and touched by his passion and his searching. I always saw him, when I was reading him, as someone who was searching.Now this is a little romantic and idealizing because, actually, Paul does present himself as an authority, and as a power and as someone seeking to spread his authority and his power and he’s not afraid to insist upon the last word for a lot of things. And to severely judge people who don’t agree with him.I can’t erase that.It is definitely there!But so much beauty and poetry and reaching is also there and it touches me to the core.There is no way I could dismiss or minimalize this man. Despite his flaws.I have been very picky about how I approach the subject. Some of these seminary classes of mine are piranha pools. I really did not want to entrust learning about Paul to a seminary class. That’s not good that I say that. But it’s the truth.My friend Susan lent me this exquisite book. Bless her. 700 pages. For the last few months, I have made a project out of reading this book cover to cover. I hate the way in our classes they will assign a chapter here and a chapter there. It’s no way to get to know a book or a subject.This book covered each letter of Paul’s. The way I danced through the book was, I would read the author’s chapter on a particular letter. And then I would read the actual letter.It worked great.I absolutely loved that at the end of it all the author managed to sum up the life and writings of Paul in one stellar, killer paragraph:“The apostle of the crucified Lord invites us like the Thessalonians, to incarnate a hope that engenders holiness and goodness, faithful witness and love; like the Galatians, to become communities of Christ and the Spirit who who welcome person‘s from every gender, race, and socio economic condition; like the Corinthians, to embody a generous love and cross shaped justice that is willing to empty itself for the good of another or an entire community; like the Philippians, to live with other believers in unity and humility, bearing faithful testimony by word and deed in the face of opponents both internal and external; like the Romans, to become multi cultural communities that offer self giving worship to God and cruciform hospitality to friends who differ and the enemies who dominate; like the Colossians and Ephesians, to allow our relationships to be reformed by the power of the gospel of Christ’s cosmic Lord ship; and, like Philemon, Timothy, and Titus, to give leader ship to communities by evangelical example. Paul invites us all into cruciform faithfulness, hope and love”.What an exquisite summing up.

Used book for Uni course. Thorough, top quality from Gorman. It brings alive the apostle and the crucified life.

concise, elegant, informative, innovative, extremely well-written and helpfully set out. Highly recommended

Item is as described. Arrived early. Thank you.