From Publishers Weekly
Crossan and Reed make a compelling case for the idea that culture, politics and quest for empire played as large a part in the formation of the Apostle Paul as did theology and religious training. It is an approach that will leave some wondering just how much of a role spirituality played in the Paul story. The authors (Crossan is a prolific author and former co-chair of the Jesus Seminar, Reed is Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at La Verne College in California) dig deeply into the history and archeology of Paul's world, searching for an understanding of the enigmatic apostle. Paul emerges as a fervent advocate for both the uniqueness of the Christian faith and the marginalization of others, the triumph of the City of God over the pagan and anti-God Roman empire. And this Paul is willing to reach out to both Jew and Gentile to accomplish his aims. In the end, Paul the man of faith is subsumed in Paul the agenda-driven revolutionary. The authors' masterful use of history, geography and theology combine to offer a strong case for their thesis. This book is written for a sophisticated audience, and therefore will be inaccessible to many readers, but it will be a valuable addition to the scholar's library. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


James Carroll, author of Constantine's Sword
"An adventure in history, theology, and the politics of empire. Christianity needs this book, but so does America."


Book Description

"With dusty, tired, much-traveled Paul came Rome's most dangerous opponent,not legions but ideas, not an alternative force but an alternative faith. Paul too proclaimed one who was Lord, Savior, Redeemer, and Liberator. He announced one who was Divine, Son of God, God, and God from God. But Paul's new divinity was Christ, not Caesar. His was a radically divergent but equally global theology." -- from the Prologue

Many theories exist about who Paul was, what he believed, and what role he played in the origins of Christianity. Using archaeological and textual evidence, and taking advantage of recent major discoveries in Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Syria, John Dominic Crossan and Jonathan L. Reed show that Paul was a fallible but dedicated successor to Jesus, carrying on Jesus's mission of inaugurating the Kingdom of God on earth in opposition to the reign of Rome. Against the concrete backdrop of first-century Greco-Roman and Jewish life, In Search of Paul reveals the work of Paul as never before, showing how and why the liberating messages and practices of equality, caring for the poor, and a just society under God's rules, not Rome's, were so appealing.

Crossan and Reed's concise, engaging prose conjures up the complex and rich world of Paul's time, from the imperial intrigues of Rome to the theological infighting among Christian communities in Greece and Turkey to the beautiful landscapes and the cultural conflicts of the Middle East. The illustrations and short, rich, "you are there" descriptions help the reader to follow in the footsteps of Paul and, indeed, in the footsteps of Christianity.


About the Author
John Dominic Crossan was born in Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, Ireland in 1934. He was educated in Ireland at Maynooth College, in Rome at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, and in Jerusalem at the Ecole Biblique. Crossan was a member of the 13th-century Roman Catholic religious order, the Servites, from 1950 to 1969 and an ordained priest from 1957 to 1969. He taught at DePaul University for 25 years and held a visiting professorship at Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts. He has been a guest lecturer at many distinguished universities including the University of Chicago and Northwestern University. He was co-director of the Jesus Seminar from 1985-1996 and chair of the Historical Jesus Section of the Society of Biblical Literature from 1992-1998. He has contributed articles and reviews for dozens of journals and has written 18 books over the last 30 years. The Birth of Christianity was a Publishers Weekly 1998 "best book of the year" while all four of his most recent -- The Historical Jesus, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, Who Killed Jesus and The Birth of Christiantiy --were national bestsellers for a combined total of 22 months. In a recent book, Excavating Jesus: Beneath the Stones, Behind the Texts, Crossan joins a brilliant archaeologist to illuminate the life and teaching of Jesus against the background of his world. He has received numerous academic awards over the years including the American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence in Religious Studies and the Via Sapientiae Award, DePaul University's highest honor. The list of his print, radio, and television interviews and reviews takes up over 13 full pages. Crossan's interviews include The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, National Public Radio's "Fresh Air", Larry King Live and he will be featured in the upcoming ABC special "The Search for Jesus" with Peter Jennings on Monday, June 26th 2000, 9:00-11:00 p.m. (ET). He lives with his wife Sarah near Orlando, Florida.

FROM OUR EDITORS

No figure in the early Christianity is more controversial than the Apostle Paul. Fervent debates continue to rage around him: Did he "invent" Christianity? Did he reject Judaism? Was he a misogynist? Did he accept the institution of slavery? In this probing study, the author of Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography and a specialist in New Testament archaeology examine what we know about Paul of Tarsis and how we know it.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Employing a strong ￯﾿ﾽYou Are There￯﾿ﾽ approach, John Dominic Crossan, the eminent historical Jesus scholar, and Jonathan Reed, the rising star of Biblical archaeology, show that the whole Jesus vs. Paul debate is misguided. They demonstrate that Paul was a true hero for Jesus in carrying to the outside world Jesus￯﾿ﾽs messianic dedication to transforming the hierarchical, abusive, immoral reign of Rome into the egalitarian and virtuous Kingdom of God on earth. A National Geographic-style account of the historical Paul, as Crossan and Reed take the reader in his footsteps. They use new historical analysis and archaeological discoveries to answer many of the vital questions about Paul and the first Christians. (Did Paul reject Judaism and require that all Christians do so? Did he accept and require the Greco-Roman attitudes toward women [regarding them as inferior to men and second-class citizens] and slavery? Did Paul invent Christianity?--they answer emphatically no.)

The book will include a 16-page color insert with 32 color photographs of the ￯﾿ﾽtop ten sites￯﾿ﾽ for exploring Paul, which include not only those sites where Paul walked like Corinth and Ephesus, but also some he never visited like Pompeii, the city buried by Vesuvius￯﾿ﾽ ashes, which help reconstruct the world in which Paul walked. They include Rome and those cities through which the Caesars spread Roman imperial theology as well as Jerusalem, the spiritual center in which Paul￯﾿ﾽs Jewish vision was rooted.

130 black and white illustrations embedded in the text show archaeological remains that make sense of Paul￯﾿ﾽs ministry and message, and include artifacts from the smallest, like coins, jewelry, and cups that can be held in your hand to the very largest, like temples, plazas, and entire cities. Pictures range from the most stunning artistic accomplishments like Caesar Augustus￯﾿ﾽ Altar of Peace in Rome to gutter-level graffiti and pornography in brothels.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly