Fascinating, controversial, yet enigmatic the figure of the apostle Paul looms large in Christian history. But which Paul is the true one? Is it the Paul who proclaims our freedom in Christ or the Paul who demands that slaves obey their masters? The Paul who works closely with women evangelists, or the Paul who instructs women to submit to the rule of their husbands? Is it the deeply Jewish Paul or the Paul who rejects the Law? Drawing on the literary and historical insights that have revolutionized contemporary Paul scholarship, Tatha Wiley skillfully separates these different voices of Paul and their liberating and oppressive legacies. In her well-crafted work, Wiley not only illumines the authentic, historical Paul but also accounts for his influence in the history of slavery, male domination, and religious exclusivism. Encountering Paul is a welcome addition to the Come and See series."

Description: How do our current notions of the workings of the universe fit with our deepest convictions about its meaning and value? From religion, we grasp the world as created, given, gift. From science, we apprehend it as evolving, in process, changing. How do we bring these apprehensions together? Or can we? Is our impulse to find the two complementary: creation and evolution? Or is it to find them contradictory: creation or evolution? The way in which we answer these questions carries personal and intellectual consequences. It will constitute the first piece in a worldview within which we order our religious beliefs and scientific judgments."" --from the Preface Endorsements: ""The scientific failures of 'Intelligent Design' and other forms of creationism have been detailed in dozens of books, scores of articles, and in a handful of spectacular court cases. What Tatha Wiley adds to this mix is a provocative and highly readable analysis of the theological failings of today's creationist movement. It will surprise those who assume that creationism is rooted in Christian tradition, and it will challenge those who believe that the biblical narrative is hopelessly at odds with modern science."" --Kenneth R. Miller Professor of Biology, Brown University author of Finding Darwin's God and Only a Theory About the Contributor(s): Tatha Wiley is the author of Original Sin: Origins, Developments, Contemporary Meaning and Paul and the Gentile Women: Reframing Galatians. She is editor of Thinking of Christ: Proclamation, Explanation, Meaning and the series Engaging Theology: Catholic Perspectives. She teaches theology at the University of St. Thomas and the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota.

For hundreds of years, Paul's letter to the Galatians has been a flashpoint of controversy among Christians. Why did Paul write the letter, and what was at issue in the controversy over Torah observance, particularly male circumcision? Has the letter with its classic contrast of faith in Christ and works of the law served to divide Jews from Christians and Christians from one other? Radically reframing the debate, Tatha Wiley's fresh approach decisively shifts the Galatian question to focus on the social consequences of Paul's bitter disagreement with the circumcision preachers and specifically the implications of the dispute for Gentile women in the community. Wiley maintains that Paul's argument of equality in Christ was directed to and for the situation of women, whose newly won status was jeopardized by the preaching of Paul's opponents. By looking at the issue of circumcision from the angle of the Gentile women of Galatia, Wiley cuts to the core concerns of the dispute: gender privilege, religious authority, and the life-changing implications of Christian commitment.

This is a textbook on Christology for the undergraduate, graduate, and seminary market written by eleven distinguished North American Roman Catholic theologians. The structure of the book and of the individual essays follows a pattern of recovery (analysis of the tradition), critique (consideration of special problems), and reconstruction (distinctive Christologies in the contemporary American context). Part I, devoted to historical recovery, treats Jesus of Nazareth and the significance of historical Jesus research for Christology today; Christological developments resulting in the conciliar definitions of Nicaea and Chalcedon; and diverse conceptions of Christ's redemption in the early and medieval church. Part II treats four problems in modern debate: religious pluralism and Christian exclusivist claims; theological anti-Semitism embedded in Christological formulations; legitimation of male privilege via appeals to the masculinity of Jesus and Christ's headship of the church; the use of the Christ symbol to legitimate colonialism and racial exploitation. Finally, Part III offers two examples of contemporary Christologies of social transformation: mujerista Christology and black Christology. Contributors: Lisa Sowle Cahill, Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, Roger Haight, Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz, Robert Lassalle-Klein, William Loewe, John Pawlikowski, Jamie Phelps, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Gerard Sloyan, and Tatha Wiley.

Fascinating, controversial, yet enigmatic_the figure of the apostle Paul looms large in Christian history. But which Paul is the true one? Is it the Paul who proclaims our freedom in Christ or the Paul who demands that slaves obey their masters? The Paul who works closely with women evangelists, or the Paul who instructs women to submit to the rule of their husbands? Is it the deeply Jewish Paul or the Paul who rejects the Law? Drawing on the literary and historical insights that have revolutionized contemporary Paul scholarship, Tatha Wiley skillfully separates these different voices of Paul and their liberating and oppressive legacies. In her well-crafted work, Wiley not only illumines the authentic, historical Paul but also accounts for his influence in the history of slavery, male domination, and religious exclusivism. Encountering Paul is a welcome addition to the Come and See series.