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Rating: 
Summary: awful
Review: Being a jewish history professor I find paul the convert aPAULing hahaha - i could do much better! Lacks analysis and close reading.
Rating:
Summary: awful
Review: In this 1990 work by Alan Segal, the author argues that the best way to understand Paul is by using the conversion language prevalent in the first century. Largely reacting to the writings of Krister Stendahl and E.P. Sanders, Segal writes that Paul did in fact undergo a conversion. This conversion was not an emotional or crisic experience, but was demonstrated in Paul's willing change of social setting. So Paul then, a Jew, lives as a non-observant in a Gentile community.
Segal uses this distinction to explain the struggle that Paul had with opponents in his letters. While Segal finds that conversions did occur in the first century, Paul's problems started in earnest when he tried to reconcile the observant and non-observant wings of the church. Segal's thesis is that Jews supported the idea of converting Gentiles, but were repulsed by non-observnt Gentiles and observant Jews worshipping TOGETHER.
The weakness of this work in its tendency to describe Paul as a kind of first-century religious quester. A position that does not fit with the self-description of the man in his letters. It is also a bit unnecessarily long, especially in the first 70 pages or so, when Segal spends much space describing the religious attitudes of various religions in the first century. Much of this does not apply to his larger arguement, and provides detail for the sake of detail. It is, however, an excellent examination of the sociological implications of Paul and his work. A worthy read for any student of Paul and his literature.
Doug Ward
Rating: 
Summary: A good sociological examination of Paul and his new life.
Review: In this 1990 work by Alan Segal, the author argues that the best way to understand Paul is by using the conversion language prevalent in the first century. Largely reacting to the writings of Krister Stendahl and E.P. Sanders, Segal writes that Paul did in fact undergo a conversion. This conversion was not an emotional or crisic experience, but was demonstrated in Paul's willing change of social setting. So Paul then, a Jew, lives as a non-observant in a Gentile community. Segal uses this distinction to explain the struggle that Paul had with opponents in his letters. While Segal finds that conversions did occur in the first century, Paul's problems started in earnest when he tried to reconcile the observant and non-observant wings of the church. Segal's thesis is that Jews supported the idea of converting Gentiles, but were repulsed by non-observnt Gentiles and observant Jews worshipping TOGETHER. The weakness of this work in its tendency to describe Paul as a kind of first-century religious quester. A position that does not fit with the self-description of the man in his letters. It is also a bit unnecessarily long, especially in the first 70 pages or so, when Segal spends much space describing the religious attitudes of various religions in the first century. Much of this does not apply to his larger arguement, and provides detail for the sake of detail. It is, however, an excellent examination of the sociological implications of Paul and his work. A worthy read for any student of Paul and his literature. Doug Ward
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent exegesis of Paul's influence.
Review: Let me say at the outset that I am not a scholar and have no academic credentials. However I am reasonably well read in the history of the birth of Christianity. I bought this book because it had been well-mentioned in reviews in Anglican journals I receive. I was not disappointed. This is an excellent work written from a Jewish perspective, and as such it brings a new and exceedingly important dimension to the understanding of first century Judaism and the influence of Paul in the growth of the Christian church which had begun life as a sect within then (as now) heterodox Judaism. I think, as does Mark Stover in The Library Journal and the first reviewer, that Professor Segal has done a superb job in explaining to us what first century Judaism looked like and the birth pangs of the early Christian church and how it eventually separated itself from Judaism and Paul's role in this. The book is not easy to read, but the subject matter is difficult. It is not something easy or cut and dried. I think Professor Segal writes exceedingly well, and that anyone seeking an understanding of Judaism and Christianity in our own time will find this book extremely rewarding. I urge potential buyers to pay no attention to the previous review. It is valueless.
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