REDISCOVERING PAUL
An introduction to his world, letters and theology
By David B. Capes, Rodney Reeves & E. Randolph Richards. Apollos (IVP). 350 pages. £14.99
ISBN 978-1-84474-242-4
As indicated by the IVP’s Apollos imprint, this book is written at an academic level although a fairly basic one. The authors had in mind particularly students doing an introductory course on Paul. Their starting point is that modern Christians, whether from West or East, tend to read back into Paul’s writings their own cultural assumptions. Doubtless all of us need to be reminded of our tendency to make any part of the Bible, not merely the Pauline epistles, say what we want it to say.
The first three chapters put Paul’s letters in the context of the world in which he lived, contemporary customs of letter writing and, finally, his conversion, call and the chronology of his subsequent ministry. There is helpful and interesting material here, although I am uneasy about the implication that much of his teaching (such as church discipline being a corporate responsibility, p.30) derives from ideas and customs common in the Mediterranean world of his day. Is he not profoundly counter cultural?
