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Paul is second only to Jesus as the most important person in the birth of Christianity, and yet he continues to be controversial, even among Christians. How could the letters of Paul be used both to inspire radical grace and to endorse systems of oppression--condoning slavery, subordinating women, condemning homosexual behavior? Borg and Crossan use the best of biblical and historical scholarship to explain the reasons for Paul's mixed reputation and reveal to us what scholars have known for decades: that the later letters of Paul were created by the early church to dilute Paul's egalitarian message and transform him into something more acceptable. They argue there are actually Three Pauls in the New Testament: The Radical Paul (of the seven genuine letters), The Conservative Paul (of the three disputed epistles), and The Reactionary Paul (of the three inauthentic letters). By closely examining this progression of Paul's letters--from the authentic to the inauthentic--the authors show how the apostle was slowly but steadily deradicalized to fit Roman social norms in regards to slavery, patriarchy, and patronage. In truth, Paul was an appealing apostle of Jesus whose vision of life in Christ--one of his favored phrases--is remarkably faithful to the message of Jesus himself.

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Mel Foster has narrated over 150 audiobooks and has won several awards. Twice an Audie finalist for 1864: Lincoln at the Gates of History by Charles Bracelen Flood and Finding God in Unexpected Places by Philip Yancey, he won for the latter title. He has also won two AudioFile Earphones Awards. Best known for mysteries, Mel has also narrated classic authors such as Thoreau, Nabokov, and Whitman. Marcus J. Borg (1942-2015) was canon theologian at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, Oregon, and Hundere Distinguished Professor of Religion and Culture, emeritus, at Oregon State University. A Fellow of the Jesus Seminar, he had been national chair of the Historical Jesus section of the Society of Biblical Literature and was the author of the bestselling books Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, The Heart of Christianity, Reading the Bible Again for the First Time, The God We Never Knew, Jesus, and Speaking Christian. John Dominic Crossan is an emeritus professor of religious studies at DePaul University in Chicago. He is the author of several bestselling books, including God and Empire, The Historical Jesus, The Birth of Christianity, and Who Killed Jesus?. John lives in Minneola, Florida.

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