Paul: His Life and Teaching [Hardcover]

John McRay (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2003

The apostle Paul and his significance for the New Testament and Christianity is a perennial topic of interest, but few evangelical surveys of his life offer a truly holistic picture of the man and his world. To fill the void, John McRay offers Paul: His Life and Teaching. In this scholarly yet accessible work, McRay explores the apostle's pre- conversion days, missionary travels, and theological contributions. A specialist in archaeology, the author draws on his more than forty years of teaching experience as well as knowledge gained from extensive travels to the places Paul visited. Paul is a comprehensive and readable presentation of Paul's ministry and theology that weaves together historical backgrounds, archaeological discoveries, and theological themes. The book is divided into two parts. The first part examines aspects of Paul's life as a Roman citizen and the leader of the early Christian church, including Paul's place within the Jewish rabbinic traditions. McRay details Paul's sudden, intense conversion and the beginning of his ministry and concludes with an exploration of Paul's journeys. The second part offers a detailed treatment of the form, structure, and theology of Paul's letters as they relate to the world in which he lived, also highlighting their continuing importance today. Included in this examination are discussions of Paul's theology of the atonement, understanding of the law of Moses, and view of the church. Professors and students will appreciate the book's broad scholarship and the pedagogical features found throughout, including links to other resources, maps, diagrams, and photos taken by the author during his travels. Pastors and church leaders will use it as a reference, and laypeople will gain a deeper understanding of Paul and his contribution to the Christian church.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

As the culmination of 45 years of teaching and researching Paul, McRay (Wheaton Coll. Graduate Sch.) has written an introduction to Paul's life and thought aimed at an undergraduate college audience. The book, which faithfully treats Paul in his own time and place, is divided into two parts. The first part provides a detailed examination of Paul's biography that uses a historical-archaeological approach to complement references in Acts and Paul's own letters. New insights into the difficult problem of Pauline chronology are offered, as the author situates each Pauline letter in historical and social context. The second section deals with Paul's main theological ideas (e.g., atonement, justification, the Law, etc.) as found in his letters and grounds these ideas in the Jewish religious thought of the time. While McCray's book succeeds in contextualizing Paul and his teachings, Jerome Murphy O'Connor's Paul: A Critical Life provides a better chronology and James D.G. Dunn's The Theology of Paul the Apostle a more detailed look at the theology. Recommended for academic libraries only.
Charlie Murray, C.S.S., Fordham Univ., New York
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Back Cover

F. F. Bruce wrote in his masterful volume on Paul that ìno single event, apart from the Christ-event itself, has proved so determinant for the course of Christian history as the conversion and commissioning of Paul.î John McRay shares this conviction, which has guided his life as a college professor and Bible teacher. After forty-five years of teaching and extensive travel to the cities Paul visited, McRay distills a lifetime of research into this comprehensive introduction, a worthy successor to Bruceís classic. He explores the apostleís pre-conversion days, missionary travels, and theological contributions. Paul is a thorough and readable presentation of Paulís ministry and theology that weaves together historical backgrounds, archaeological discoveries, and theological themes. The book is divided into two parts. The first part examines aspects of Paulís life as a Roman citizen and as leader of the early Christian church, including Paulís place within Jewish rabbinic traditions. McRay details Paulís sudden, intense conversion and the beginning of his ministry and concludes with an exploration of Paulís journeys. The second part offers a detailed treatment of the form, structure, and theology of Paulís letters as they relate to the world in which he lived, highlighting also their continuing importance for today. Included in this examination are discussions of Paulís theology of the atonement, understanding of the law of Moses, and view of the church. Teachers and students alike will appreciate the bookís careful scholarship and the pedagogical features found throughout, including tables, maps, diagrams, and photos taken by the author during his travels. Pastors and church leaders will find this book to be a handy reference, and laypeople will gain a deeper understanding of Paul and his contribution to the Christian church.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: Baker Academic; First Edition edition (March 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080102403X
• ISBN-13: 978-0801024030
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #478,362 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars His Life & Some Teaching, February 21, 2005

By 

Matt Fabian (Navasota, TEXAS United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Paul: His Life and Teaching (Hardcover)

McRay's book is for college or seminary level students. McRay is good about interacting with other scholars on all the issues he covers. McRay is a conservative evangelical, so he does use Acts and Paul's letters to contruct his history and thinks them to be historicall reliable. For an intermediate reading on Paul, I would recommend the book.

I found the first half of the book on Paul's life to be quite good. He gives good background info on all the cities Paul went to. He descibes how he would have traveled, what life was like in Roman prisons, and how Paul used his Jewishness and Romanness to his advantages. McRay thinks Paul was released from his first Roman imprisonment (where Acts ends) and went on to more ministry and wrote the Pastoral epistles.

This books is not that great if one is intersted in Paul's writings. Each letter is treated very breifly within the life narrative. He mostly focuses on Paul's reasons for writing the letter and its general contents. The second half of the book focuses on various aspects of Paul's teaching. There doesnt seem to be any rhyme or reason why McRay chose the topics he did. Here are some comments on a few chapters within the "teachings" half of the book:

Paul's view of the law -- an extremely complex topic. McRay does a good job of breaking all the debate down into a few points. Very helpful introduction to the issue.

Paul in Recent study -- does what it says. Again, a good intro to the topic.

Form, function, and canonicty of Paul's letters -- mostly about what letters were like in the Greco-Roman world and how Paul's letters compare.

The Faithfulness of Christ -- corrects a common misunderstanding of Paul's teaching. Usually people see Paul as pitting works verses faith. McRay convinvingly argues that this is wrong. Paul pits faith in the Law verses the faithfulness of Christ to God's promises to redeem humanity.

Paul's world of apocalyptic and demonology -- Sets Paul in the religious context of the 1st century.

Paul and the Incarnation of Jesus Christ -- Mostly discusses Philippians 2:5-11. Very technical chapter.

Obviously one book cannot comprehensively cover life and teaching. So I guess I should cut McRay some slack. Good book, many pictures, some maps. Has many many footnotes for further research.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the more you read the book the more you learn Paul, August 13, 2004

By 

Süleyman Turan "süleyman" (TURKEY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Paul: His Life and Teaching (Hardcover)

It was claimed that Paul, who has been accepted as the most effective missionary and the founder of christianity, has been misunderstood by a lot of people from Marcion to Bultmann. Mcray's book offers satisfying information about Paul to seminary, college students and all interested christians to explore Paul's life and teaching. Mr Mcray who has described Paul's Life and missionary journeys extraordinary dealt with important issues on Paul in his book's second chapter. John Mcray deserves both congratulations and thanks for this high in quality guidebook.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book, June 6, 2009

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Paul: His Life and Teaching (Hardcover)

The book is an approachable academic look at Paul's life and times for with a passion to know more about this great Apostle in his historical and cultural setting. This brings it all alive. The book is full of facts (tables), dates (charts), and excellent general as well as detailed material on Paul's life, his ministry, and the many places he traveled and taught. In this way, the book is more a biographical history but not a theological review of Paul's writings.

I read this book at reading Prof. McRay's book titled "Achaeology & The New Testament". The second half of this Archaeology book covers the provinces and cities Paul visited from an archaeological perspective.

Prof. McRay has visited most of these sites, so there are plenty of fairly recent photographs. He has a nice touch on the pictures he publishes.

These are two of my favorite books, so I hope you enjoy them too.