Paul Among the People: The Apostle Reinterpreted and Reimagined in His Own Time [Paperback]

InPaul Among the People, Sarah Ruden explores the writings of the evangelist Paul in the context of his time and culture, to recover his original message of freedom and love while overturning the common—and fundamental—misconception that Paul represented a puritanical, hysterically homophobic, misogynist, or reactionary vision.
              
By setting famous and controversial words of Paul against ancient Greek and Roman literature, Ruden reveals a radical message of human freedom and dignity at the heart of Paul’s preaching. Her training in the Classics allows her to capture the stark contrast between Paul’s Christianity and the violence, exploitation, and dehumanization permeating the Roman Empire in his era. In contrast to later distortions, the vision of Christian life Ruden finds in Paul is centered on equality before God and the need for people to love one another.
 
A remarkable work of scholarship, synthesis, and understanding,Paul Among the Peoplerecaptures the moral urgency and revolutionary spirit that made Christianity such a shock to the ancient world and laid the foundation of the culture in which we live today.

Praise for Sarah Ruden:

Paul Among the People
“Ruden offers a wholly fresh reinterpretation of Paul’s most controversial writings.” –Washington Post
 
“Ruden is winningly intimate as well as impressively scholarly in this superb book.” –Booklist
 
“The most exciting book of historical analysis I’ve read in ages – indeed the most exciting book period … What makes reading Ruden such a pleasure, aside from the quality of her thinking and her prose, is her willingness to question settled truths, and to do it with such a lightness of spirit.” –Rod Dreher,