– Meeting God in Paul

Rowan Williams' lovely flowing easy to read style draws one on to continue reading . He deals well with the life of St Paul, bringing him out as a real person. I like the Lent meditation at the end of the book.

After Meeting God in Mark, the former Archbishop of Canterbury gives some fresh insights into Paul. He isn't the bugaboo some have made him out to be: inventor of Christianity, homophobe, misogynist... Cultural and literary studies are presented in a clear text, exempt of jargon. Williams' take on Paul's concept of the Last Day is fascinating, and original. My only cavil is that the book came to an end too quickly!

I find Rowan Williams short books deeply insightful for the number of pages. He has a great way with words. Always a lovely read.

How is it the Rowan can be so concise, pertinent and powerful in so few words? Truly the work of a soul that has wrestled daily with the Mystery of the love of God in Jesus.

I was sceptical given the author but boy did I learn a lot of very useful stuff A very good read.

This book reminded me of the power that resides in the letters of Paul. Masterly writing by Rowan Williams and had the additional benefit of drawing me back to Tom Wright's magnificent book also on Paul. A really good read

An excellent introduction with some useful questions for a Lenten study group or other book group.

This is exactly what you need to understand Paul and the times in which he lived. Simple and easy to understand.

Rowan Williams tiene un talento especial para redescubrir a los autores más demonizados, estigmatizados o malinterpretados dentro de la ortodoxia de la tradición espiritual cristiana. Con su enorme cultura patrística, su hondura espiritual y una fe lúcida, inteligente e informada, a prueba de bombas, Williams saca a la luz los tesoros de lo verdaderamente excepcional y único, renovador y vivificador, de tantas y tantas cosas que habíamos acabado dando por sentadas y supuestas, anquilosadas a lo largo de los siglos, de manera superficial, irreflexiva, y debidamente "domesticada". San Pablo aparece así como una figura irresistiblemente humana y que destila fuerza por los cuatro costados: el ciudadano romano que proclama la perturbadora idea de la acogida universal y de la nueva creación de todo y todos en el Cristo como destino último y definitivo, tan antiguo y tan nuevo. Imprescindible para purificar y consolidar nuestra fe y nuestro compromiso con el evangelio y con la santidad en el sentido más "revolucionario" de estos términos, en unos tiempos de incertidumbre como los que vivimos hoy en día.

I am using several copies for a Sunday morning six week Lenten Class in my Presbyterian Church. Excellent resource for stimulating discussions.

Williams successfully shortens about 50 years of historic/critical scholarship on the apostle Paul into a readable 100 page book for lay and clergy alike. A fantastic study for a Lenten group.

A short but powerful theological introduction to Paul. Williams is always a perceptive writer and thinker, and his illustrations are thought-provoking (e.g. when he compares classical literature with Paul's ideas of being a body as working together in an imaginative relationship of coordinated work versus mutual belonging of a company managing director and a lavatory cleaner in the same building, p.44-45). I appreciate the way Williams is concise to give way to the main question in the life, letters and legacy of the apostle Paul. The book's objective overall is to understand "the world of ideas Paul inhabits" (xi), which is in sharp contrast to the social, moral and religious categories in the first-century Roman empire. Only by understanding this "dangerous newness", one can appreciate Paul as person, pastor and letter-writer for his and subsequent times. Williams is particularly interested in how this affect the understanding and practice of prayer among earlier Christians. So the chapters basically sketch this objective in sequence: Chapter 1: the idea of insiders (full Roman citizens), outsiders (free people without Roman citizenship) and slaves in Paul's social world, and how that influenced Paul's ministry and his challenges in terms of 'democratizing' ethics within the Christian communities he founded. Chapter 2: Paul's central message of God's universal welcome apart from social position. Divine grace and gift, for Paul, means that any person is equally acceptted in Christ, and should accept people from different ranks in the same manner. This would sound completely disturbing in his social world. This notion is explored in Paul's teachings of the Christian church as 'body' (mutual belonging), 'ekklesia' (an assembly that decides together what will happen in a town) and of communal prayer (all rich and poor have access to God's inheritance and blessings, by calling him 'Abba, Father'). Chapter 3: Paul's view of the cosmos. Since his vision in the road to Damascus, something transformed Paul's understanding of Jesus (he was an accursed criminal, but also the LORD), of union with (Jesus affirms that he himself is being persecuted, thus implying a close connection with his threatened followers), and of history (if Jesus actually resurrected, then the New Creation started invading the present time, although the latter still stands for a while). So the apostle Paul presents in his letters a sense of urgency that his communities become the visible manifestation of the age to come in the present, particularly in their ethical commitments and participation with Christ, through the Spirit, in prayer to the Father, until the universal redemption and resurreciton come. Overall, this book is fascinating and accessible. I did, however, have a couple issues with the book: (1) Williams understandings of the discussion of authorship in the Pauline corpus is apparently ill-informed. The general consensus within NT circles is that (a) Paul certainly wrote Rom, 1-2 Cor, Gal, 1 Thess, Phil and Phlm; (b) Paul could have written or directly influenced 2 Thess, Eph, Col; and (c) he hardly wrote 1-2 Tim, Tit. Williams, with no further explanations, sets Phil in (b) and 2 Thess in (a), a very unusual position. (2) His description of Paul's zealous youth as part of a 'terrorist squad' rings a very negative and unfair tone. It is hard to simply throw a parallel between Paul and modern notions of terrorism (a similar anachronism to using expressions such as "Paul was a sexist" or "The OT is monarchist"). Perhaps Williams could have clarified what he meant by that language.

Great read from one of the modern eras truly original theological thinkers and writers.