On Paul

Reviews / Votes

'...They are not always easy to read, and certainly present one with food for thought, but they are worth the effort.' 'The range of essays in this book is astounding.' -- Dom Anselm Brumwell * Downside Review, The * "There is no question...that the dozen essays appearing here are worth reading. Barrett, the author of monumental commentaries on Paul and Acts, is always challenging, never superficial, forcing the reader to work hard; and here he is writing on his subject of choice." Robert C. Hill, University of Sydney, Australia, Heythrop Journal * Heythrop Journal * "The book conveys the erudition and insights of a giant in the field." -Religious Studies Review, April, July 2004 * Religious Studies Review * "We are grateful both to professor Barrett and to the publisher for assembling these important essays in the this volume" -Eckhard J. Schnabel, Review of Biblical Literature, 8/04 "Perhaps Barrett's greatest feat in these essays is the way in which he carefully avoids extremes and simplistic solutions. He does not, for instance, whitewash or downplay the evidence for sometimes bitter conflict between the apostle to the Gentiles and the Jerusalem leaders. At the same time, in several places Barrett is careful not to follow F. C. Baur in overstating this conflict and representing Paul and Jerusalem as enemies. Barret also emphasizes at several points that our historical reconstructions must often remain tentative or even incomplete because we simply do not have any other way of knowing, for instance, what proportion of the church was ethnically Jewish between 70 and 100 C.E. For all his caution, however, it is Barrett's ability to weave from these fragmentary and indirect sources a story that rings true, his keen sensitivity to the particularity of each situation and his ability to imagine it in all its vivid uniqueness, that makes his arguments so convincing to this reviewer. A fine and unusually coherent collection of essays, the excellent indices also make it a convenient resource for those who are interested in Barrett's exegesis of specific passages. Above all, the portrait of early Christianity that Barret draws out from Paul's letters and the Deutero-Pauline literature should serve as an important corrective to the tendency to speak in very agnostic terms of 'Jesus-movements' and 'Christianities' totally isolated from one another and sharing little theological common ground. The book is thus a welcome addition to the literature on Paul's life and thought as well as on the border early church" -Ian W. Scott, Review of Biblical Literature, 5/04 * Review of Biblical Literature *