Lucas Grollenberg, a Dutch Dominican, is already known to English readers as the author of one of the best illustrated atlases of the Bible. In this short book he provides one of the most engaging and non-technical introductions to the often difficult thought and work of St Paul. The book arose out of a series of meetings with a group of lay people. Its style is informal and there are no disconcerting details to clpe with which presuppose a certain level of knowledge. At the same time, however, the book reflects the best modern critical scholarship and does not gloss over the diffi- culties...

his book, the author tells us, arose out of feelings of irritation and amazement which came to him after an Advent service. Irritation, because the congregation sang of the prophets who foretold Christ, whereas modern scholarship has taught us that these prophets did not have miraculous foreknowledge of the future; moreover, such a view is basically antisemitic, presupposing that the Jews were blind and hard of heart in rejecting a Messiah so clearly announced. Amazement, that a pious Jew crucified as a criminal two thousand years earlier was celebrated all over the world as risen Lord. How...