Paul

Rating:
Summary: WOW, I'd like to give this one SIX STARS
Review:
I finished this book several days ago and have been pondering how to describe it. It is surprising that another reviewer was so critical of Wangerin's portrayal of Paul. Paul wrote much about suffering and weakness, and about glorying in Christ alone. This book gives some plausible reasons why he did so. It completely changed my view of Paul.

As a girl who grew up knowing Christ, Paul sometimes baffled me. In fact, he sometimes offended me. I thought he had a view of women that painted us inferior...I remember as a teenager wrestling with his words and thinking of God's negative view of me! So Paul has not always been beloved in my life.

That is why I am genuinely thankful for this novel. It opened my eyes to the passion of Paul. It made me see the apostles and their writings in a living, breathing context. I know that this book is fiction, and I am sure that there are parts of it that are complete fiction. But now I can read the New Testament as a part of an amazing story. Instead of reading a passage and immediately looking for things that apply to me, I am more able to read it as the powerful history that it is. I don't see Paul as preaching at me, but as living for the same Spirit who is in me. I see him as a brother heeding an amazing calling - the same calling that I have. And the way that he lived for that calling is so inspiring. The way he impacted the church, even though he suffered greatly, is an example for us.

Wangerin used Bible verses and references throughout this novel. Through the events that unfold, he shows all of the drama and passion that were behind the words. We see the great conflicts of the day that inspired Paul's words.

Buy this book! You will want to read it more than once. The writing style is fascinating, but not too complex for the average reader. I just can't recommend it enough, especially for those who have read a lot of Scripture and could use a refreshing read. It will make you want to pull out your Bible and read more! I have even purchased two more of Wangerin's books because of this one's impact. Oh, and God used this book to help me in a time of despair. It would be great for a depressed Christian who is easily discouraged when reading Scripture. It is encouraging and inspiring, and it made me remember why I love the Lord and Scripture so much.

Rating:
Summary: An imaginative work that rings of authenticity.
Review: A colorful appropriation of the life and times of Paul of Tarsus, largely extrapolated (with commendable constraint) from the letters of Paul and from the Acts of the Apostles, as seen through the eyes of several of the characters who occupy those books. Readers looking here for an ideological soapbox upon which to climb will be disappointed, as Paul is neither painted as the buffoon that so many moderns seemingly wish him to be, nor as a blameless, misunderstood hero.

Some of the characters (e.g. Simon Peter and James) seem, if not one dimensional, at least too thin. Even Paul's character seems to suffer a bit here and there from underdevelopment, but in fairness to Wangerin, I'm certain it would take a writer the equal of Shakespeare to do full justice to a character of Paul's magnitude. On the other hand, characters like Barnabas, Timothy, Titus, and Prisca jump out from the dusty corners of the New Testament to become confidants of the reader. To my mind, Prisca steals the show, so to speak. Her rapt love for Paul (and his Voice) gives us a clue as to how this upended Pharisee managed to turn the world itself on its head: dividing both the Jewish and Gentile worlds down the middle, and changing the course of history forever.

I must say that I thought the Seneca sections were unnecessary and detracted from the whole (How did this end up in here?). The relevance of the situation in Rome to the story at hand was never made clear, what little bearing it did have on the young Christian movement was never really treated, and it almost seems to occupy its space for little reason other than to provide the book with the kind of scandalous juice that would be lacking in a story focused only on the birth of the Church. If these chapters were removed, the book would lose nothing but heft, and would gain in coherence.

This disappointment was offset by the surprising presence of, at times, large sections of Paul's actual letters to the churches (colorfully translated). Perhaps it was cynical of me to be surprised by this, but I did not expect a modern novel *about* Paul to leave Paul much room to speak for himself. Much of Paul's oratory is also scriptural, but even where it is not, Wangerin displays an accomplished theologian's grasp of Paul's thought, giving us imagined words from Paul that ring true to his heart.

This is perhaps Wangerin's principal accomplishment here: he does not tell us his own "story" using Paul as his puppet voice, rather he tells us convincingly of Paul, of the problems that he faced, and of what it might have meant to have known him in his day. All in all: nice work, Walter. Recommended reading.

Rating:
Summary: Paul
Review: After reading this book and then reading the Bible stories about Paul, I fealt as though I knew the characters in a more personal way than ever before. I know that it's fiction but it's written in a way that you believe it could have happen that way. I especially like the way he described the difference between Paul and James. Oh one other thing his copy of the book of Galatians is great.

Rating:
Summary: Paul
Review: After reading this book and then reading the Bible stories about Paul, I fealt as though I knew the characters in a more personal way than ever before. I know that it's fiction but it's written in a way that you believe it could have happen that way. I especially like the way he described the difference between Paul and James. Oh one other thing his copy of the book of Galatians is great.

Rating:
Summary: Paul or the Author's Life?
Review: Don't read this book if you are seriously interested in the religious issues of the first Christians and how they might differ from what the historical Jesus taught. The book fails to convey the seriousness of those amazing times and dwells on superficialities of how Paul looked and got beat up, that kind of thing. What could be religious ferver and meaning has been replaced by sentimentalism. Your eyes will not go popping out of your head at this one. --Strephon Kaplan-Williams

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing!
Review: Having just finished the book, I was very disappointed in the novel. I was expecting much more. Mr. Wangerin portrays Paul/Saul of Tarsus as a tiny little man, with bandy legs and a head too large for his body, who ran about like a mad mad. this completely ruined the story for me. I realize it was fictional, but at the same time, I can't imagine the man, the roman, the Jew, the Pharisee, the one man who exerted such a wide influence on the worlds affairs, and Christian affairs, to be as he is described here in this horrid tale. Chritianity needed such a man as Saul, and the world needed such a mind. I do believe that he preached Christ crucified with a passion, and he did stir up the people. But not as the character described in this book.

If you have held the Apostle Paul, in your heart, as the great preacher of the Gospel that he was. Don't waste your time on this work.

Rating:
Summary: Bible Heroes come to life
Review: I am not a novice Bible student, but Walter Wangerin Jr. brings my New Testament heroes alive like no one I've ever read. What a sanctifying experience!

Rating:
Summary: One of the better Christian novels
Review: I bought this book on a whim. I've read The Robe (see my review - a reader from Ky) and thought it was one of the best books I've ever read. I've read several religious novels and most of them, quite frankly, are not very well written. Paul, by Walter Wangerin Jr. is an exception. He has crafted a very fine tale without letting doctrine get in the way. What doctrine there is unfolds slowly and naturally throughout the novel, mainly through the personalities of the characters. His description of Saul is not exactly what I had pictured in my own head, but it was interesting nonetheless. Not in the class of The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas, but Paul is a very good book in its own right. It makes me want to read The Book of God, also by Wangerin. I found some of the negative reviews of this book to be very much off the mark. They have perhaps let their own personal religious zeal cloud their literary judgment. Bottom line: Paul: A Novel is a very good novel!
Thanks.

Rating:
Summary: An engaging fictionalised account of Paul's life
Review: I found the book a great read and rather authentic, although I have to say that I wonder how close to the New Testament accounts it is and would have to study them very closely again in order to be sure. The Paul of this book certainly fits the physical and characteristic picture I have of him, small and gangly and yet the ability to hold people's attention within an instant. The account of his journeys and the Churches he set up certainly had me riveted.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: I had to read the book for a Acts of the Apostles class that I am taking at Cincinnati Bible College. It really opened my eyes to what really went on in the life of Paul. It was very easy to read. Over all it was just an awesome book.