Rating: 
Summary: Paul - Up Close and Personal
Review: Paul:A Novel by Walter Wangerin, Jr. Paul: A Novel is a fictional description of the Apostle Paul's journeys. . . to other lands, certainly, but also toward a more complete Christian personality. If you can make it through the first hundred pages, this book is a gem.
Among the many characters providing a multi-layered view of Paul's struggle to spread the Christian message to the world are Seneca, reflecting the history and politics of the time
and Priscilla, showing the vital role of women in the early Christian church.
Paul becomes a lovable, invigorating and genuine "person" to the
reader as he teaches love, forgiveness and grace. The message: Early Christians survived much conflict as the new church grew and developed, showing us that minor conflict today is surmountable! Hope is within reach of all who live in love!
Rating:
Summary: An engaging portrait of what might have been
Review: Take the book of Acts and then try to fill in all the details by painting a written portrait of what things might have been like. That is basically what Walter Wangerin does in this engaging novel. Staying true to Biblical sources, Mr. Wangerin shows us Paul in a way that many people may have never seen him before. The Paul we see here is one who is often disliked by his fellow believers, but always respected. We see Paul as a man of such strong convictions that people can't help but have strong reactions to him, either positive or negative. The only complaint I had about the book was that it slowed down in places. Otherwise, this is a very well-written fictional account of someone who we know about only in Scripture. This novel does a neat job of taking you back to those times when God was moving in his people and letting you play with the idea of "I wonder what it might have been like to be there." It is well worth the read.
Rating: 
Summary: A great read
Review: The book was a pleasure to read. The author concentrates on the more dramatic and literary events of Paul's life, leaving the more general history (travels, healings, etc.) to intersperced narratives by Luke. The reader is made aware of the intense purpose and charged passion of the first generation Christian. There are also insightfull interpretations of events and personalities which differ from the sunday school version of Paul in your head. You find yourself grabbing the New Testament for reference and reminding yourself that these are real people in dangerous times.
Rating:
Summary: Epic Adventure
Review: This book lacks nothing. Without giving a history lesson, Mr. Wangein has given us a looking glass into life 2000 years ago, and in particular, the life of Saul of Taurus a Pharisee, prosecuting the new Christians and becoming the Apostle Paul a Christian champion. Beginning with his conversion, Paul's life was filled with enormous challenges, and even greater successes. Opposition from Rome, Jews and even Believers, Paul feared none and conquered most.
Rating:
Summary: Epic Adventure
Review: This book lacks nothing. Without giving a history lesson, Mr. Wangein has given us a looking glass into life 2000 years ago, and in particular, the life of Saul of Taurus a Pharisee, prosecuting the new Christians and becoming the Apostle Paul a Christian champion. Beginning with his conversion, Paul's life was filled with enormous challenges, and even greater successes. Opposition from Rome, Jews and even Believers, Paul feared none and conquered most.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Details
Review: This book really pulls you into the past with great descriptions of the characters and places. I could see myself walking with the disciples in all the cities of the past. It's definitely worth the cost!
Rating:
Summary: Paul the biography
Review: This is a book I have been looking for for a very long time. "Paul" by Walter Wangerin is about the apostle Paul and his mission in the First centry AD to spread the word of Jesus. On his mission he was met by many people who opposed him, the rabbis in the Synagogues, the silversmiths who made pagan idols for worship (the likness of the Greek gods, for example), and even other early church leaders. The fights with Barnabas and other church leaders over whether Jesus completes the Law or eclipses it is facinating. Also the fight over whether circumcision is nessecary for Christians was interesting too (Paul believed it should be an exclusivly Jewish custom). The book is told from the points of view of Prisca, a woman whom Paul mentors in the way of Christ; Luke (who wrote the book of Acts, which is the chief source for Wangerin's book), Timothy, Titus, and even Paul, although the only thing we get from Paul is his letter from to the churches he has establsihed. Paul is shown to be a man of tremndous faith and energy of spirit, even if his body was weak and frail. I really enjoyed this book. I really think that it put many of Paul's letters to the Churches (the books of Galations, Ephesians, Romans, and especially Corinthians, among others) into a perspective that we can understand. I am not saying this book is 100% authentic; it is, after all, a work of fiction. But I think that "Paul" is a plausable idea of how the early Church operated back then, and how we came to have many of the customs we have today. If there is any problem with this book, it is just a little tough to read, it dose get a little dry in places and is a little hard to finish; but it is rewarding if you trudge through it.
Rating:
Summary: Great Novel!
Review: This is a great novel that enables the reader to better imagine the people in Paul's life and ministry. It also opens the readers eyes as to the cultures and events of Paul's time. It is hard to put down. A must buy! Get it for yourself or as a gift for a friend or family member.
Rating:
Summary: Pastor P in WI
Review: This is an excellent book, but one should read it with the following caveats:
(a) IT'S A NOVEL. It's creative. And although it is well-informed and well-studied by its author, if you want something authoritative, pick up the Bible itself and a good historical commentary.
(b) I won't give away the story line here, but in a book group of which I am a part, there were some who were taken aback by some "sexual" overtones. In our over-sexed culture, it is virtually impossible to imagine any sort of intimate relationship without sexualizing it. One needs to struggle hard against this cultural bias and suspend one's own suspicions about intimate human relationships. It is a Christian assumption that human relationship found in God through Jesus Christ is a new creation...one in which it is thoroughly possible to imagine and achieve a depth of intimacy without sexual behavior. Call me old fashioned... I LOVED THIS BOOK.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining storytelling
Review: Walter Wangerin does a fine job of telling the story of the apostle Paul. This work is fiction, but the writer uses Paul's letters, the book of Acts, and Wangerin's own creative imagination to form the plot. I really enjoyed the author's ideas on how to fill in the "gaps" in Paul's life; and also the artistic liberties he took in more fully developing some of the events. For example, he spends a substantial portion of the book focusing on Paul and his relationship to the church at Corinth. Some of the problems of this church which are implicit in Paul's letters to the Corinthians are creatively expanded by Wangerin. While you may not agree with all of his creative expansions, in most cases they are historically plausible. After all, this is fiction, NOT a work which claims to be absolutely accurate in all historical details. It was especially refreshing to see a writer who does not gloss over the disagreements and differences which were found in the early church. They weren't always one big, happy family. There were personality conflicts and differences in beliefs. This story does a wonderful job of realistically portraying many of these disputes. There were two disappointments I encountered in this book. First, is the lack of character development of Paul. Paul is supposed to be the main character, but it often felt as though I knew Prisca or Timothy better than I knew Paul's character. The second shortcoming was the ending of the book. I won't ruin it for you, but I will say that the author could have made the ending far more dramatic than it was. It just seemed to be a little anti-climactic. Overall, this was a fun book to read and a very creative re-telling of the story of the apostle to the Gentiles.
|
